Exes and Ohs
by Brain in the Gutter
Summary: When social worker, Bella Swan takes a possible abuse call, the last thing she expected to see is the hunky doctor whom she's been secretly panting over to be the one to answer the door. Expanded from one shot Milk and Cookies. ExB AU AH
1. Milk and Cookies

**Summary: When social worker, Bella Swan takes a possible abuse call, the last thing she expected to see is the hunky doctor Edward whom she's been secretly panting over to be the one to answer the door. How will their relationship blossom despite his ex's drama interfering with their lives? Originally called Milk and Cookies, and written for Ninapolitan's D.I.L.F. contest. No longer just a one shot! AU AH ExB**

**A/N: This story is the continuation of the one shot I posted for Ninapolitan's D.I.L.F. contest. I never really intended for it to be more than a one shot, but then I was thinking about how else to torture these characters, and voila, I had an outline. So, this chapter is the one shot and chapter two will be picking it up from where I left off... Happy Reading!**

**Twilight and all it's characters, is under the ownership of Miss Meyers... I don't own...**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter One

Milk and Cookies

**BPOV**

_I hate Mondays_. Today had to be the worst Monday I have ever had. Not only did I forget to set my alarm last night, but the secondary alarm on my phone didn't go off because it died in the middle of the night. I was rushing around trying to get everything done before I had to leave, when I realized the last pair of pants I thought were clean, actually had a large stain along the bottom hem. So now I was stuck in a skirt which was normally reserved for date night...which, come to think of it, hadn't been in way too long. I ran out the door with wet hair and no coffee. This was quite possibly the worst way to start off my day.

When I got to work, Mike Newton, the slimiest, laziest, good-for-nothing co-worker tried to simultaneously grope my ass and pass paperwork off on me. I should have known the skirt would be a problem. Newton normally didn't bother me too much since I was out in the field more often than not. I only came into the office to fill out paperwork and check in with my supervisor, Esme Cullen. She was one of the few reasons I stayed at this job. She was a constant source of encouragement for me when the stress of the job made me want to loose myself in the bottom of a bottle of vodka. She was constantly reminding me of how much good I was doing for all the kids I helped.

We were in the middle of our weekly meeting, when I got a page regarding one of my kids. The first time I met Bridgette was two years ago. She had been removed from her home because of neglect. A neighbor called the cops reporting a domestic dispute. When the cops had arrived on scene, the argument was still going with both of them screeching at each other. A fight between the two of them broke out shortly afterward, and the two were sent off to cool down at the county jail. I had received a call from Jasper Whitlock, the lead investigator on the case, when he found a little girl locked in one of the rooms. She had been dehydrated and badly malnourished.

My heart broke when I saw the scared blue eyes peeking up at me from underneath the blanket that she had been wrapped in. Her skinny arms were wrapped around Jasper's neck and she didn't want to let go at first. I had finally gotten her untangled from Jasper and taken her to the hospital where she had stayed for a couple of days recuperating. My friend, Alice Brandon, had an opening in her foster home, and had taken her in when she was released from the hospital a week later. When Alice came in to pick up Bridgette from the hospital, she met Jasper who was visiting with Bridgette.

The call I received today had been just as heartbreaking as the one I had gotten two years ago. Both of Bridgette's parents had spent some time in jail due to the amount of cocaine found in their home, but her mother had gotten out six months prior due to good behavior. Against my protest, Bridgette had been placed back with the mother, Victoria, a month ago. The same neighbor called in another domestic dispute earlier in the day and, once again, I got a phone call from Jasper. They were letting me know that they had called an ambulance and she was en route with multiple injuries.

I informed Esme of the situation, and she told me to get to the hospital as soon as I could. I told her I would check in with her when I knew more about what was going on. I met both Jasper and Alice at the hospital. I had called Alice on my way in to let her know of the developing situation with her former foster daughter. She and Jasper had gotten married last year and the two of them had been trying to adopt Bridgette. Their adoption had been denied even though they had gotten permission from the father, because Victoria didn't want to release custody of Bridgette. Alice had been moping the last three weeks, missing little Bridgette. She was sobbing uncontrollably when I met her in the lobby. I held her for a while and rubbed her back mumbling that things would be alright. I spotted Jasper and motioned him over.

"Do you know anything yet?" I asked quietly.

"No, they won't tell me anything since I'm not Bridgette's parent," Jasper said dejectedly. He pulled Alice into his arms but she continued sobbing.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"She's been beaten pretty badly. Apparently, the mother's boyfriend has been abusing her. The neighbor who called two years ago reported the violence. As soon as I heard the address on the radio, I got there as fast as I could. When I got to the house she was crying for me..." Jasper's voice broke on the last sentence. He didn't bother to wipe the tears that leaked from his eyes. He continued to rub Alice's back and she started to calm down.

"Let me go see what I can find out. I'll be back with more info." I hugged Alice quickly and walked toward the admittance desk. I spoke with one of the nurses who sent me to the triage area to speak with one of the nurses. They would know more about Bridgette's condition.

I spoke with Rosalie, the charge nurse on duty. I introduced myself and explained that I was Bridgette's social worker and would be taking charge of the case. She told me that Bridgette was currently undergoing emergency surgery to repair a punctured lung, and some internal bleeding. So far, they weren't having any complications, and were nearing the end of the surgery. They expected a complete recovery. I thanked her and told her I would be waiting for any more information out in the lobby.

I quickly walked out, pausing in the hallway, to take a moment and call Esme. We discussed how to handle Bridgette's case. She quickly came to some decisions on how it should be handled. She said she'd get the ball rolling on the paperwork. She also mentioned that she knew a judge that owed her a favor and might be able to cut through some red tape. I thanked her before we hung up and took a moment to pull myself together before going back out to see Alice.

When I got out to the lobby, Alice was still in Jasper's arms and she had calmed down considerably. As I walked towards her, she gave me a watery smile.

"She's in surgery right now. They estimate it should be complete in another thirty minutes to finish, and then they'll move her to recovery." Alice's breath shook as she gulped in air and looked as if she was going to tear up yet again, but stopped when Jasper kissed her on the forehead.

"Is she okay?" Jasper asked.

"The nurse said she was asking for both of you as they were wheeling her into surgery. They hadn't run into any complications, and if everything goes as planned, there won't be any permanent damage." Alice let out a breath of relief as I relayed the information. A little bit of the stress that was evident on her face melted away when I told her the news. "I talked with Esme. She's going to be taking over Bridgette's case."

"What? Why?" asked Alice, panic creeping into her voice.

"Because she's filing the paperwork to have your adoption approved. Victoria's custody will be revoked immediately, and so you'll have a chance to try and adopt Bridgette. It should be pretty quick if they grant it, since you've already gone through the process and been approved as parents. We didn't want it to be caught up in the system because I have a personal interest in the case. That was why I wasn't involved in your adoption case earlier this year." I squeezed Alice's arm gently and she visibly relaxed into Jasper.

"Oh, okay. Do you have to go back to work soon?" Alice was petting Jasper's arm absentmindedly. Alice has always been one of those people who needed tactile reassurance especially when she was worried about something. I knew that she would want me to stick around as long as I could.

"Esme told me that I was okay to stick around for awhile. She said she would call me if anything pressing came up."

"Good." We sat in silence for a while. Not because we had nothing to say, but almost because there was so much to say. I tried to distract myself by looking around the lobby and noticed a clock that had cats on the face. _Why would you have cats on a clock?_ I was startled from my musings by the sound of my name being called. I turned my head and met the brightest green eyes I had ever seen. The smiling eyes were so deep and penetrating it felt as if he was looking into my soul. My eyes traveled across his face, taking in the sharp angles and the mop of unruly hair. I focused in on his lips, which looked so soft and kissable. I realized that I was watching those elegant lips call my name once again, and that it was he, who was calling for me. The trance that I was in was broken by Alice's elbow digging into my back.

I stood up and walked toward the man who had been gracing one too many of my fantasies lately. I had glimpsed him every once in a while when my work happened to bring me to the hospital. I had first seen him two weeks ago when he was leaving as I was walking in to answer a call about a possible abuse case. His scrubs did nothing to hide his god-like physique. As I got closer to him, I realized that he was taller than I had estimated. Although I had seen him quite a few times, I had never been the subject of his penetrating gaze.

"Yes?" I said quietly.

"Hi, I'm Edward Masen;the surgeon on Bridgette's case. You're her social worker?" he asked in a velvet tone.

"No, my supervisor will be taking over her case, but she has asked me to step in as a liaison for her while Bridgette's in the hospital. She's trying to get some of the paperwork handled so that we can get her case squared away quickly."

"Ah, alright then," he cleared his throat quickly and continued on, "the surgery was successful. We repaired the internal bleeding and the puncture to the lung but she has some cracked ribs and quite a bit of bruising. We'll keep her under observation for the next couple of days to see how she's doing. She should be released within the week. We have your information on file for her point of contact. We'll call you back when she regains consciousness. You'll be able to see her then."

"That's fine. I'll handle the personal aspect of this case until Esme can properly take it over. Bridgette's very familiar with me since I have been her case worker for the last two years." Edward nodded and I turned to walk away. I was stopped by a hand on my arm. I felt a warmth spread out from where his fingers rested on my skin. I looked back at him with a quirked eyebrow. "I'm just curious, but who are Alice and Jasper?"

I nodded my head towards the couple in question. "Her previous foster parents. They have been trying to adopt her for the last six months."

"She said to tell them she loves them," he said with a small smile on his face.

"Thank you, that will mean a lot to them," I said as I grinned back at him. I admired the fit of his pants as he walked away from me and back towards where he came from.

"Was that _green eyes_?" I jumped as Alice poked me in the shoulder. Her eyes sparkled at me.

"I thought you were off crying," I said teasingly.

"I needed a distraction. And guess what... You're it!" she said with a small smile. "So, was that the scrumptious doctor you told me about at dinner two nights ago?"

I groaned and looked toward the ceiling. I should never have confessed to her of my latest obsession, but the sadness in her eyes was somewhat alleviated when I told her of my little crush. "Yes, that was him. His name is Edward Masen, so we can stop calling him green eyes," I tried to hint at her.

"But green eyes is such a better nickname for him. And that way no one but you and me know who we're talking about." Alice loved nothing better than a secret shared between friends. It was one of the reasons I told her about him in the first place. I swear the reason we started hanging out was because she needed someone else to be in her secret club. My parents and I had just moved in down the street from her and sadly enough, the two of us were the only kids our age on the block.

"Alright fine, he's still green eyes, but you can't tell Jasper about him." I narrowed my eyes at her hoping against all hope that she hadn't said anything to him yet. My hopes were dashed as I saw the tell-tale signs of guilt creep over her face.

She nervously started picking at the imaginary lint on her dress as she said, "I already told him."

"Alice, what's the point of telling you secrets if you can't keep them?" I asked in mock anger.

"You know I don't keep anything from Jazz. It makes me want to throw up!" The distress on her face made me cut back on giving her a hard time. I laughed at her and hugged her tightly.

"I know, I was just hoping you managed to _not_ tell him for once," I grinned at her.

"You know that's about as likely as finding a snowman in hell." We laughed as we walked back to the chairs and settled in to wait.

~*~

Later that night I was at the office, finishing up my notes for the day, when I received a phone call from Esme. She said that she knew I was going to be leaving the office for the day, but asked if I could run out to an address. There had been a report of abuse to the hot lines. She said that the information was sketchy, and the person sounded rather nervous, but the call needed to be checked out. I wrote the information down and told her I would be on my way in a few moments.

As I drove to the address, I thought about all that had happened today. Having a name to go with the face that stared in all my most recent erotic dreams was nice. I had resigned myself to admiring him from a distance. But now that we'd had a conversation, maybe I could screw up a bit of courage and ask him out for coffee. Doctors loved coffee right? Knowing me, I'd trip and spill the coffee on his clothes, and then he'd have to change. Hm... I wonder if he'd let me help. _Snap out of it, Bella_.

I realized I was at the address I had written down, but had to double check. The house was huge. It was an isolated part of town, where they weren't cramming as many houses into as small a place as possible. The lots were huge and the houses sat deep into them. If I didn't know we were in the middle of a sprawling metropolis, I would have sworn I was out in the middle of the countryside. The house I walked up to was a rustic style house, looking as if it had been built during the California Arts & Crafts movement. The large square beams, shake roof, and plethora of stained glass made the house into a work of art.

I mused on who would be living in this beautiful house as I walked up the long drive. I rang the doorbell and waited for a bit. I had been gazing at the lovely stained glass that adorned the edges of the front door, when I heard the door open. I glanced slowly up the body in front of me starting with the bare feet, traveling up the jean clad legs, skimming over the built chest encased in a gray t-shirt, to the face of the man. My heart stuttered to a stop when I realized who the man I had been calmly perusing. _Fuck, Green Eyes._

**EPOV**

When I heard the doorbell ring, I thought it was my mother coming back for something she had forgotten yet again, so I took my time, kissing Lizzie on the forehead as I passed her on the way to the front door. My little girl was alternately staring at the timer and looking through the glass front of the oven. We had been baking cookies together and the last batch had two more minutes left, and she was impatient for them to be done. She knew she wasn't allowed to have any until all the cookies were made and the dishes cleaned up. We had just finished washing the last of the dishes and now she was impatiently waiting for the last of the cookies to bake.

On my way to the front door, I mused about the beautiful woman whom I had finally gotten to meet today. I had seen her around the hospital quite a few times, but not often enough to indicate that she worked there. Her mahogany hair had been down unlike the other times I had seen her. Previously, her hair had been scraped back into a tight bun that she no doubt, thought made her appear more professional. Her expressive brown eyes were concerned when I spoke about the little girl that I had performed surgery on. I felt the urge to smooth out the wrinkle between her eyebrows when I first walked up to her, wanting only to pull her into my arms and comfort her. I couldn't stop myself from staring at her slim legs as she uncrossed them to get up to walk towards me. I could just imagine how they would feel wrapped around me as I buried myself in her warm depths.

I shook my head, trying to knock the images from my head. It wouldn't do me any good to answer the door with a hard-on. A couple of the women have been trying to welcome me to the neighborhood by attempting to warm my bed. I didn't want to give them the false impression that I was interested in a quick fling.

I opened the door and was startled by the vision of the woman before me. Bella Swan. I felt her gaze as it wandered up my body and was entranced by the expression on her face. The shock was evident when she met my eyes.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you again today?" I said smoothly.

"I'm sorry to have to say this, but we got a phone call on our hotlines, reporting abuse going on at this address." _Fucking Tanya.  
_  
"Come in, come in," I said as I opened the door wide enough for her to just brush past me. "I think I know what this is about. Did the caller leave a name?" I knew it was highly unlikely for Tanya to have left her name, but it could have happened.

"It was an anonymous tip. So, you've had something like this happen before?" Bella asked with curiosity lacing her tone.

"Yes, this has been my ex-wife's favorite brand of torture lately. When I first moved out of our house, there was a different social worker there every week. I had hoped that moving across country would diminish the possibility of this happening, but apparently she's up to her old tricks again. Would you like to meet Lizzie?" As I asked I heard the timer go off, and a squeal from my little girl.

"DADDY!!!!! THEY'RE DONE!!!! Hey, where did you go?" she hollered. We heard her feet pattering on the floor as she started running toward where we were standing. She rounded a corner and threw herself at me saying, "Catch me!"

I caught her with ease, and swung her around once. She giggled as she buried her head into my neck. "Lizzie, I'd like you to meet someone very nice. Her name is Bella, Bella this is my daughter Lizzie."

"Nice to meet you," she said shyly from her perch on my hip. She turned to me and said, "Bella's pretty, Daddy!"

Bella chuckled, "It's nice to meet you, too, Lizzie. Would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?"

"Sure, but only if we can have cookies at the same time!" She looked up at me, knowing that I would never renege on a promise.

"Do you like chocolate chip cookies?" I asked Bella as I turned to head towards the kitchen.

"Sure, I don't think I know anyone who doesn't."

I dropped the munchkin off on one of the bar stools, and grabbed the hot pad to pull the last batch out of the oven. Bella sat on the other bar stool as I flipped the cookies onto a plate and set it between the two of them. "Milk, milk, Daddy!" Lizzie demanded.

I started pulling glasses out of the cupboard and cocked my head at Bella questioningly. She nodded indicating that she would like a glass. I had just poured the three glasses, when Lizzie started crying. I quickly turned and saw that she was holding her hands gingerly and there was a cookie sitting on the bar. I scooped her up and turned the kitchen faucet on. I stuck her fingers under the cold water and tried to examine her fingers. "You burned them again didn't you munchkin? You have to wait for the cookies to cool before you can grab them. You know better."

"I know," she said with tears sparkling in her eyelashes, "but they're just waiting for me to eat them!"

"You know, if they're too hot for your fingers they're going to be too hot for your mouth. How do they feel. Are they still warm?"

"No, they're good." She sniffled a little and wiped at the stray tears on her face. "Can I have a cookie now?"

"I don't know, why don't we ask Bella if they're cool enough to eat?" We turned to Bella, who grabbed a cookie and quickly took a bite.

"Mmmm..." she said as she waggled her eyebrows at Lizzie, getting a laugh out of her. "These are perfect!"

I plopped Lizzie back in her seat and handed her her cup of milk. She smiled so big at me I couldn't help but kiss her on the forehead.

Bella turned to Lizzie and asked, "How old are you, sweetheart?"

"I'm four," she said, proudly holding up her fingers. "But I'm going to be this many on Saturday," she held up her other hand, as well, and stuck up one extra finger. "We're having a party. Do you want to come?"

"I don't know about that, sweetheart, we'll have to ask your dad. Who takes care of you?"

"Nana Lizbeth does. I'm named after her. Oh, and Daddy, too. Who takes care of you?"

"I take care of me."

Lizzie frowned and she said, "it's always nice to have someone take care of you though. Mommy used to take care of me, but now she doesn't. Don't you have a mommy or a daddy to take care of you?"

"My mother lives in Florida and my father lives a couple of hours away. I don't get to see them too much. What's your favorite food?"

"PIZZA!!! I especially like it when Daddy and I make it together. We did that last week." I watched as Bella and Lizzie continued trading questions back and forth. Bella snuck in the tough to ask questions seamlessly, not letting Lizzie feel like she was in an interrogation. When the cookies were eaten, the milk drank, and the questions asked, Bella looked at me and nodded her head towards the door. I plopped Mary Poppins into the DVD player, and started it up for Lizzie before walking Bella to the door.

"Well, did I pass your test?" I asked quietly.

"With flying colors. Your daughter shows absolutely no signs of abuse. She's got a large vocabulary for her age which means she's used to speaking with adults on a regular basis, but there's nothing wrong with that. You have a wonderful daughter and it's obvious that you love her and she loves you." I stared at her lips as they kept moving, wondering what it would be like to taste them.

"Thank you. It's nice to hear that you're doing a good job at raising your child. So, you'll be here Saturday at 2 PM?" I said as I reached to open the door.

I looked back at her and saw the shock that flashed across her face. "Wha-What?"

"The birthday party? Here, at 2 in the afternoon on Saturday? I'm pretty sure that Lizzie will have my head if you aren't there." I grinned at her as she paused in the doorway.

"Well, sure, I, I guess." She looked slightly uncomfortable as she thought of the upcoming party.

"You should bring Bridgette if she's out of the hospital by then. She's the same age as Lizzie right? Oh, and Jasper and Alice. That way you won't feel as if you don't know anyone." Her eyes sparkled at this idea. "Maybe you'd like to go out for coffee sometime next week?"

The shock in her eyes was evident, and I started to fidget as she let the silence go on. She slowly nodded and I breathed out a sigh of relief. I walked her out to her car and as she unlocked it she paused and turned back to me. A couple of strands of hair blew across her face, so I tucked them quickly behind her ear. I couldn't stop myself from following the line of her neck, down to her shoulder. I leaned in towards her, concentrating on her pink lips. I looked back up at her warm brown eyes and saw that they were rather dazed looking. I pulled back thinking that our first kiss should only be after our first date. _Oh well, another time..._ "Good night, Bella. I can't wait to see you on Saturday."

I helped her into her car, tapped the roof of it just before she drove off. I walked back into the house and to the living room. I pulled Lizzie into my lap just as Mary Poppins blew into the neighborhood. She put her head over my heart, listening for a beat or two and then said, "You should have asked Bella to stay for Mary Poppins, Daddy."

"Maybe next time, munchkin. Maybe next time." _Best Monday Ever._

_

* * *

_**As always, thanks goes to my beta Pire. You still are a sparkly bitch... and you help me make sense. :D**

**Special thanks goes out to Kimpy0464, thanks for all the advice!  
**

**They both have stories - GO READ THEM!!!!**

**What's your favorite cookie?  
**


	2. Cupcakes and Coffee

**Twilight and all it's characters, is under the ownership of Miss Meyers... I don't own...**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter Two

Cupcakes and Coffee

**BPOV**

"I'm sorry ma'am, but we cannot deny custody based on the fact that your previous son-in-law is a cross-dresser. We have observed him on many occasions and the decision has been made. Of the two, he's the better candidate for parental custody." _Because he is responsible unlike your daughter who left the child at the school on multiple occasions in order to get her brains screwed out by the postal worker... or was that the UPS guy?_ I shuddered as I tried to get the image out of my head of her and the delivery man getting it on in the doorway of her apartment. They apparently took the saying 'what can brown do for you?' to the next level. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight of the two of them going at it as I walked up to her apartment. What I really didn't understand was how she could have forgotten that we had an appointment which was specifically to ascertain whether or not she was responsible enough to have custody of the little boy.

It was Thursday, and I was wrapping up loose ends at work, excited about being able to get out of there at a decent hour since I was planning on going to Alice and Jasper's for dinner. Bridgette was home from the hospital and we were going to celebrate. I still needed to pick up the cupcakes from Bridgette's favorite bakery. She had pulled through just fine, and was released early because of how quickly she was healing.

I couldn't believe it was Thursday already. It seemed as if I had just left Edward's house feeling dazed and a little confused. When he had asked me to come to the party I was pretty sure that he was doing it to keep his daughter happy, but when he asked me out for coffee, I was so shocked, all I could do was nod. I was certain that he was leaning in to kiss me from the way his eyes darted back and forth from my eyes to my lips, but then he pulled away at the last minute.

As I mulled over what could possibly be going on in his head, I stopped in at Frosted Cupcakery and picked up a half dozen cupcakes. Chocolate and Chocolate for Bridgette and Alice, the chocolate addicts, and Lemon Cupcakes for Jasper and me. I snagged a good spot on Ocean and walked up the street to Alice and Jasper's cozy house which they had just finished decorating. The small front patio was lined with tropical plants to give a sense of privacy. As soon as I walked in the gate, I was met with the sight of Jasper in board shorts and an apron, checking on the food grilling on their big barbecue. I walked over to him and gave him a one armed hug as we both observed the steaks and veggies that looked to be just about done.

"Right on time, as always!" Jasper said.

"You know it. Is that one of Alice's rejects?" I said as I gestured towards the frilly apron he had on. Alice's business was creating crafty things from fabrics, be it quilts, aprons, burp cloths for babies, or doll clothes, which meant that there were a lot of abandoned projects. Whenever she wasn't quite happy with how the design was working out, it went in her reject pile. I had snagged quite a few projects from her reject pile that I thought were perfectly good, and had her help me finish them up and kept them for myself. I had a rather large collection of aprons and hot pads.

"Yup, you know it!" he said as he hip-bumped me. He started pulling the steaks and the veggies off the grill and onto a plate.

"What was wrong with this one?" I asked, grabbing one of the plates as we walked towards the side door. He held it open for me as I ducked under his arm and walked into the kitchen.

"She said the bias of the fabric wasn't working out for her. Or something like that," he said with his eyebrows scrunched together, trying to recall exactly what it was Alice had said.

"I said that the gingham needed to be cut on the bias for the straps. I redid the design and sold quite a few of them on Etsy," Alice said as she came up to me and took the plate and box of cupcakes from my hands, kissing me on the check quickly. "Brii's in the sewing room, looking through the latest projects I've been working on. She said she couldn't wait to see you earlier."

"K, I'll go check on her." I walked down the hall to the back room which had previously been two small rooms and had the wall between the two taken out. Along one wall there were deep metal shelves, filled with fabric of all types, from cottons, to flannel, to minke, to velvets, coming in all sorts of colors and patterns. Along another wall was her sewing machine and long arm quilter. She even had one of those forms that they use for creating clothes which she had dressed in her current project. In the center of the room was a large, high table which was used for cutting fabrics and laying out designs. Sitting at one of the stools sat one of my favorite kids in the world, Bridgette. She looked up as the door softly hit the wall with a _thump_.

"Bella!" Her little body hopped off the stool and she walked over to me as fast as she could, gingerly throwing her arms around my waist. "I missed you! Do you think Mama Alice will let me help on her new project?"

"I don't think Alice would ever say no to her favorite helper!" I said smiling at her. The excitement she had for what Alice did almost made me want to help out as well. Having grown up around Alice guaranteed that I could sew a straight line, but designing and creating the projects she did were well out of my range of expertise.

It was so good to see the sparkle back in Bridgette's eyes. When she first woke up in the hospital she looked so scared and lost. In the beginning, I was the only one allowed back there, but Rosalie, the charge nurse who had kept me informed when Bridgette was first admitted, finagled a way for Alice and Jasper to get to see her as well. The relief on Bridgette's face was evident when Alice and Jasper walked in the room. Big fat tears welled up in Bridgette's eyes as she said, "I thought you were lost forever." The four of us all cried for a bit, holding onto each other and reaffirming that our loved ones really were all together.

I was brought back to the present by Alice's squeal when she saw what we were looking at. "Don't you just love this new fabric? I love the vintage look, and who doesn't like toys? I'm almost done with the top, all I have left is the quilting and binding. I should be done with it tomorrow afternoon." I watched as Alice lovingly touched the pieced quilt. There were jacks and marbles and balls, as well as dump trucks, tug boats and fire trucks, stars and stripes, all in vintage colors.

"That's so cute Alice! I need a favor though." If I was going to tell Alice about Saturday, it was best to do it quickly; like ripping off a band-aid. "We're invited to Green E-- I mean _Edward's_ daughter's birthday party on Saturday. I need a gift. Any ideas?"

"Who's we?" Alice asked with a gleam in her eye. _Oh no, cue inquisitor Alice, someone save me!_

"You, Jasper, Bridgette, and I. It's her fifth birthday. Do you have any quilts that would be appropriate for a little girl?" I asked as I hoped that would be enough information to appease her curiosity.

"And how did you come about this invitation?" _NO! NOT THE PROPER ENGLISH!_ That was a sure sign of her curiosity being fully peaked. I wasn't going to get out of this room without telling her the whole story.

"I got a call I had to check on Monday night, Gree- Edward's ex had made a false call trying to get him in trouble with social services. Had some cookies with him and his daughter, Lizzie, got us invited to her birthday party and coffee next week." I tried to say that as quietly as possible, hoping she wouldn't have heard, or paid attention to it. My hopes were dashed as I saw her eyes sparkle and her grin widen.

"A date with Green Eyes, eh?" she asked coyly.

"Yes, I have a date," I responded in the same manner, rolling my eyes. "So, back to the subject at hand, do you have any suggestions for a gift for Lizzie?"

"How 'bout that princess quilt we started before I left? It's all done, yeah?" Bridgette piped up. _Yes, mission accomplished!_

"Yes, but I thought you wanted that for your room?" Alice said as she turned towards Bridgette.

"Nope, I want to do something different. I've decided I want butterflies. Something like this." Bridgette was flipping through one of the old magazines Alice had lying around. She had pointed out one of the first quilts Alice had had published in a magazine as a designer.

"Hmm... I have more than enough of a coordinating print to do the canopy bed as well as the quilt. How bout we..." Their voices got quieter as I took my chance to make a break for it unnoticed by the two design divas. I walked to the kitchen to see if Jasper needed any help with the last of dinner preparations.

"You escaped!" Jasper rejoiced as I walked into the kitchen.

"Just barely," I smiled at him. "Got any plans for Saturday?"

"Apparently now I do. Just let me know where and when." That had to be one of my favorite things about Jasper. His ability to keep things simple. No need to give me the third degree. Besides, he knew Alice would tell him all the details before the day was done. He handed me a stack of plates and shooed me towards the side door. "Can you set the table outside on the patio? The heat's gone out of the day and it's nice out there. I'll go let the two of them know dinner's almost on."

I headed out to the patio table which already was set except for the plates which I quickly set out. The three of them came out with Bridgette in Jasper's arms. Bridgette had been enjoying all the extra attention she was getting immensely.

As we ate we reminisced about our favorite memories with Bridgette. Bridgette kept complaining that we weren't supposed to make her laugh, since it hurt her ribs, but then she would go on to tell us funny stories, causing us to hold our own ribs we were laughing so much. My favorite had to be when she told us about how she asked Jasper to be Alice's boyfriend. The two of them had thought they were being clever and hiding their attraction for each other, from each other. They were in for a rude awakening when Bridgette grabbed their hands, clasped them together and popped the question. I had been almost certain that Bridgette was going to do it again when it came to their engagement, since Jasper had had the ring for two weeks before he finally asked Alice. He of course had to ask permission from Bridgette, but that was a given that she would be okay with it.

After dinner Jasper and I quickly cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen while Alice got the cupcakes ready. She put a sparkling candle on the cupcake for Bridgette and we walked out singing 'congratulations to you' in the tune of the Happy Birthday song. Bridgette's eyes lit up when she saw the cupcake just for her. We spent the rest of the night watching her favorite movies.

~*~

The next day, I was on my way into the hospital to clear up some paperwork when I bumped into Edward again. He had on a pair of jeans, a black v neck t-shirt, and a black leather jacket that he was in the middle of zipping. He looked up and spotted me, his green eyes sparkling when they met mine.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" he asked with concern laced in his voice. "Nothing bad I hope?"

"Nope, just gotta picking up some paperwork for Bridgette's case," I said with a grin.

"Hey...I know I said we would go get coffee later next week, but how bout we go get dinner now? I just got off shift," he said as he cleared his throat.

"Sure, I'm done as soon as I get the paperwork. I can bring it in on Monday. Anyplace around here that's any good?" I said as I did the happy dance in my head.

"You ever been to Chuck's?" the sparkle was back in his eyes at my easy acceptance. "'Home of the world famous Weasel'?" he asked using air quotes. "It was recommended to me by one of the doctor's here on staff. It's a short drive down the road, but it's supposed to be worth it!"

"I love Chuck's! Breakfast food sounds great. But I thought they close early...?"

"Nope, my co-worker said they extended their hours recently, they're open later on weekends. You know where it is then?" I nodded in response. "How bout I head down there and get us a table while you go get your paperwork finished? That way you don't have to wait in line too long."

"That sounds perfect, I'll see you in a bit."

I quickly found the nurse I needed to speak with and got my business with her squared away. I hopped in the car and drove down to my house. What Edward hadn't known was that Chuck's was where Alice and I went to breakfast every Sunday since it was a quick walk from both of our homes. I walked down to the restaurant and found him sitting outside at one of the small tables. He was looking at the menu, but looked up when he heard me pulling the chair out to sit down. I watched as he ran a hand through his hair, wanting to be the one to muss it to it's full sex hair glory.

"Hi." he said with his lopsided grin.

"Hi." I said back with a small smile. I had to stop myself from staring at his hands which were currently folded in front of him on the table. I wondered how they would feel running all over my body, from my breasts, to my thighs as he prepared to dive into my--- _No more fantasizing, Bella, get it together!_

"So, what's good here?"

"Everything." I waggled my eyebrows at him.

"You've had everything on the menu?" his eyebrows drew together in concern. I just barely kept myself from smoothing the lines out with my fingers.

"Not at one time, but I have tried everything on the menu. I've been coming here for years with Alice. It's a great place. It's right down the street from my house."

"Oh," he said dejectedly.

"This is my favorite restaurant actually. It's great to find someone who enjoys breakfast food and is willing to eat it at non-breakfast hours."

"Yeah, well, when you rarely get a chance to eat breakfast when its breakfast time, you take it when you can get it." he said with a chuckle.

We went back to studying our menus and put our orders in when the waitress asked what she could get for us. We both sipped on our coffees as we started talking about how our day had gone. Edward had just come off a 24 hour shift, but said it felt like he had been at the hospital forever. He had to pull in some favors with the other doctors, which meant longer shifts, in order to get the weekend off to spend with his daughter.

There had been a major traffic accident that had come through the E.R. earlier this morning. It had been chaotic, trying to take care of all the patients at one time. Thankfully, all the emergency surgeries where minor and everyone was doing okay. One of the patients was a little boy about his daughter Lizzie's age. He had been the most critical of all the patients. Edward had kept an eye on the little boy all afternoon, and had been able to bump him out of I.C.U. a half hour before he went off shift. All the other injured parties had been stabilized by noon.

Our food came up and we continued discussing what had been going on in our lives. I told him about my day, how one of the mom's I had been working with had finally gotten custody back of her two girls. She had been addicted to pain meds after the birth of her second child and was arrested for possession and intent to sell. After she got out of jail, she had gotten herself cleaned up and employed at a small bakery. She had her life on track and she was so glad to have her girls back. It had been a good day.

We were sitting back after the plates had been cleared, still sipping on the coffee that was always flowing, when I asked, "So, why did you become a doctor?"

"You know, I never really had a noble reason for becoming a doctor." he told me. "My father was a doctor and I always wanted to be just like him. I had been going to school, doing all the work and doing it well, but it came easy to me. I didn't really appreciate how being a doctor can affect lives until I had been in the middle of my residency, when I met a little girl. She had been in and out of the hospital for years with a medical condition that would continue to affect her for the rest of her life. She said that she grew up she wanted to be a doctor just like me, she wanted to help people get better. She had such hope even while going under treatments that were very painful."

"What she said really affected me. It was almost as if I caught her passion for helping people. From then on, I felt like I understood why I was a doctor. Why I had this need to help people in this way. I've never wanted to be anything else since then."

"What happened to the little girl?" I asked quietly.

"She died about two months after that. She caught a cold that quickly turned into pneumonia, and the antibiotics couldn't do enough to keep it from getting worse. From then on I try to cherish every day I have on this earth, whether it's another day at the hospital, or being able to spend the time with my daughter. It really opened my eyes up to how much we have to be thankful for everyday."

We both reached for the check when the server set it down, but he quickly snatched it out of my hands. "Uh-uh, missy, I asked you out on a date, and I'm gonna pay. That pout won't work with me," he said teasingly.

"So, when I ask you out on a date, I'll get to pay for it?" I teased back.

"Maybe," he said with a wink.

We started walking towards the register as Edward asked, "Where did you park your car?"

"I parked by my house and walked." I answered as Edward handed the cash and the bill to the cashier.

"Can I walk you home?" He asked as we walked out the door and onto the sidewalk.

"Sure. I'm down on St. Joseph." I nodded my head in the direction of my house.

"So, why did you become a social worker?" he asked.

"That's a long and messy story, you sure you want to hear about it?" I asked tentatively as I bit my lip.

"I want to know everything about you," he said and my heart melted.

"K, here goes." I tucked my hair behind my ear as I continued to tell my story. "I was adopted when I was about six years old. I had been in a foster home for about a year before that, but it was horrible. We were beaten regularly." I paused for a moment to take a shaky breath. "My brother, who had been in the foster care system with me tried to protect me from it as much as he could, taking most of the beatings on himself. When we finally got out of that home, we were split up and I was eventually adopted by my parents now. I can still remember my brother screaming for me when they put us in to different cars. We were all we had left in this world and they were splitting us up. I miss him more than anything. He is the reason why I do this job. To make sure that families stay together, and that kids never have to go through what we did." I blinked rapidly to try and clear the tears that were threatening to spill from my eyes. I always got a little teary eyed when I told this story, so I generally didn't speak about it.

"What happened to your brother? Did you ever find out?" He asked with a concerned look in his eyes.

"I tried looking him up after I started working here, but his records were lost in a fire ten years ago. I tried looking him up by our last name, but if he was adopted, his last name might have changed. I have no idea how to find him." The frustration at not being able to find him crept into my voice.

"I'm sorry," he said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed me on my temple. My heart fluttered as a warmth enveloped me from head to toe. I shook myself a little to continue on.

"It's alright. My adopted parents were great. They helped me deal with all that stuff and I like to think I came out as a well adjusted person." We continued walking in silence, with his arm wrapped around me. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, just restful. Neither of us felt the need to fill the silence; both of us thinking about what the other had said. We walked up to my tiny little house and I pulled my keys out of my purse and said, "This is me."

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said it was close." He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "So, can I call you sometime?"

"Sure, I'd like that. I had a really nice time." I smiled at him.

"So did I," he paused and looked around. I could have sworn I saw his adam's apple bob once. "I'd like to try something if you don't mind." He said as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and stepped closer to me. We stood so close to each other our breaths mingled in the warm summer air.

"What?" I whispered. My heart raced as he got closer, watching as his eyes went back and forth between my lips and my eyes, pausing longer on my lips with every pass.

"This." He gently sunk his fingers into my hair at the nape of my neck and wrapped the other around my body, finding the small of my back. He pulled me closer to him, till our bodies were flush against each other, his hard muscles being cushioned by my soft curves. He leaned down and touched his lips gently to mine. He moved his lips on mine, gently nibbling on the outer edges. He pulled my bottom lip in between his and gently sucked on it, wringing a whimper from me. I couldn't stop myself from wrapping my arms around his neck, one of my hands thrust into his silky hair. He deepened the kiss, sinking his tongue into my mouth, caressing along my tongue. Time seemed to stop as we continued to kiss, and I never wanted it to end. Unfortunately it did. He pulled back a bit, pecking me on the lips as if he didn't want to stop kissing me. He looked into my eyes, still holding me in the circle of his arms, kissed me one more time, and set me apart from him.

"Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow," He said after clearing his throat.

"Uh huh." I barely managed to get out.

* * *

**A/N: Frosted Cupcakery and Chuck's really are places in Long Beach, CA. The lemon cupcakes are really good. Chuck's is only open till 2 though, but I extended their time for the sake of this story. Because I love Chuck's and their pancakes are killer!!! :D**

**As always, thanks goes out to my beta, Pire. Without you, I would be sitting at home reading a book, not imagining how I could torture some poor, hapless characters... Everyone give her a round of applause for getting the job done despite having a broken laptop...**

**What is your favorite kind of cupcake?**


	3. Big Top and Birthday Cake

**A/N: There seems to be an overwhelming amount of you who prefer chocolate on chocolate cupcakes, but I think my favorite response, was Edward with chocolate frosting... :D I'll take that any day!  
**

**Links to the banner for the story and the clothes for this chapter are on my profile.**

**Twilight and all it's characters, is under the ownership of Miss Meyers... I don't own...**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter 3

Big Top and Birthday Cake

**EPOV**

The night had gone better than I expected. Once I got the okay from Bella, I called my mom and let her know that I was going to dinner with Bella, and to ask if she would stay a bit later with Lizzie. I talked to my little munchkin, promising her that I would make her pancakes in the morning for her to make up for the late night.

Chuck's was great. When Bella said that she had been there before I was initially dejected, remembering how I was trying to sell her on going someplace she already had been to so often before. But when she made that comment about loving breakfast foods, I started to fall in love with her. My mother had never understood my obsession with breakfast at dinner time, and to find someone who loved it just as much as me? There couldn't be anyone else as perfect for me as Bella.

The food was great and the service was awesome. Although we stayed longer than the average table, there never seemed to be any hurry to get us out of there. We seemed to talk forever, about things we both actually seemed to care about. I was shocked when she told me about the reasons why she became a social worker. I never expected her to be so open and honest with me so quickly. I hoped that it was because we were building a solid foundation; something to build on.

The night only got better when we kissed. I could still taste the warm spice of coffee on her tongue as we explored each other. Her soft hair wound round my fingers like silk as I pulled her towards me. The small bite of her nails as she griped my shoulder and ran her nails along my scalp hinted at the passion we would share. I could just imagine how those nails would rake up my back as I thrust into her over and over. It took everything I had to keep myself from ravishing her up against the wall, in spite of anyone who might walking down the street. As I pulled away from her, I couldn't resist kissing her lips just a few more times. I had been fantasizing about how her plump lips would taste for so long, I was almost certain of how it would be. All my expectations were blown out of the water with that one kiss.

She seemed a little dazed when I pulled back, but I made sure that she made it into her apartment alright. She stumbled just a little bit over the threshold but other than that she was okay. I heard a thump on her door shortly after it closed and the sound of her keys hitting the floor. I called through the door and asked if she was alright. She quickly said uh-huh and I chuckled as I made my way back to my car. The sun was just setting as I got in my car and went home.

My mother was watching TV quietly when I walked into the house. As she collected her belongings she filled me in on the days events, from their treasure hunt to the drowning of Lizzie's Tickle Me Elmo doll. Never had I been so excited to hear about the death of a toy. She informed me that she would be over early to help set up for the party, and to make sure I saved some pancakes for her. I watched out the front door until she got in the car and left.

I walked up the stairs to the explosion of pink that was my daughter's room. The covers had been kicked off, so I pulled them back up and tucked them around her tightly. I kissed her on the forehead, and whispered to her how much I loved her.

~*~

The next morning, I was awoken by a weight pouncing on my chest. Rubbing where she had landed, I groaned out, "Careful there, munchkin, you're going to break daddy's ribs."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," she said quietly before jumping up and down on the bed as she screamed excitedly, "but it's my birthday today! C'mon, time for pancakes!"

"That's right, I do owe you some pancakes now don't I? Do you want chocolate chip, blueberry, or plain?" I asked.

"Chocolate chip with chocolate syrup!" she said as she continued to bounce on the bed.

"You're going to bounce off the ceiling with all that chocolate. You sure about that?"

"YES! Maybe some whipped cream too? It is my birthday, and you always said I can have whatever I want to eat on my birthday."

"Yes, you can, but remember the time that you ate all that cake and ice cream by yourself?

She paused in her jumping and looked at me with a frown, "Yeah, it made my tummy hurt. I didn't like that."

"So maybe we shouldn't eat everything you want to eat today? Just a little bit of everything?"

"Okay, let's go daddy! Time's a wasting!" Where she comes up with some of these phrases just makes me wonder. She bolted off towards the stairs, leaving me to pull myself out of bed, grab my slippers and wander off after her.

As I got to the last step on the stairs, the doorbell rang, and Lizzie skidded to a stop on the way to the kitchen, turned herself around and headed back towards the door. I walked into the foyer, as she threw open the door and yelled, "Grandma! It's my birthday today!"

My mother gathered her up in a big hug and said, "I know, love bug. We're going to have a party just for you. Have you had your pancakes yet?"

"Nope, not yet. Daddy's gonna make me chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup!" She was practically shaking with excitement.

"Hmmm... I'm just in time then aren't I?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"What? It's my day off. Can't I at least sleep in till..." I looked at the large grandfather clock, "nine thirty?"

"Not when we have lots to do to get ready for a birthday party." she walked over and kissed me on the cheek on her way to the kitchen, still holding Lizzie in her arms. "Let's get to the pancakes, I have a list for you." _Lists__;__ damn my mother's lists._ From the time I could remember, there were always some lists of things to be done. They always seemed never ending.

It was twelve thirty before I was done with running all the errands my mother wanted me to do before the party started. As I walked into my house, I made my way to the backyard to check on the progress. The back yard had been transformed into a circus carnival, with games, face painting, and even a miniature petting zoo. This had been the first time my mother had been able to plan a birthday party for Lizzie, so she had gone a little overboard. Apparently at two o'clock, when all the guests were here, there would also be jugglers and clowns as well.

"Daddy!" I heard just before my daughter came crashing into my legs. I looked down at her and saw her face shining with happiness, which made me smile. If she was this excited about her birthday party, I would let my mother plan all of Lizzie's birthdays for the rest of her life.

"Hey, munchkin, what have you and Grandma been up to?"

"We decorated! See?" She then proceeded to drag me around to all of the different booths that were set up and explained to me all of the things we should do once the party started. I was shocked at how much stuff they fit into the backyard. I was certain my mother had knocked down the back wall and taken over my neighbor's backyard as well.

"You need to go upstairs and get cleaned up, young man!" I rolled my eyes at the sound of my mother's voice. "Did you get everything on the list?"

I nodded my head, handing my daughter back over to her care, and headed towards my bathroom. As the steaming hot shower cascaded down my body, I imagined what it would be like if Bella were here with me. If it was a birthday party that she was hosting for my little girl instead of my mother. _She could boss me around any time_. I could just imagine her with her hands on her hips, with a sparkle in her eyes, as she told me what to do. I'm sure I would do a couple of things wrong just to see the fire in her eyes as she yelled at me. Then I would distract her from her anger by kissing her, wrapping her tightly in my arms and not letting go. I could feel her soft little body pressed up against me, her hard little nipples pressing against my chest as I nibbled my way from her her lips, to her ear, down to her neck. I could just imagine her breathy moans as I found one sensitive spot after another. As I was reaching down to grab my achingly hard dick, a loud pounding on the bathroom door interrupted me from my imaginings.

"Dude, if you're beating one off in there while I'm slaving away trying to do all the things your mom asked me to do on this damn list of hers, I'm going to kill you." I heard Emmett yell through the door. "Hurry the fuck up!"

I finished my shower quickly, knowing Emmett knew where the hot water heater connection was, and wouldn't be afraid to turn it off if he thought my shower was taking too long. I had first met Emmett three years ago when he first started dating my cousin, Rosalie. He had been at all sorts of family get-togethers, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, and we had become pretty good acquaintances.

It wasn't until I moved back to California with Lizzie three weeks ago that he and I got to know each other even better. He had been the first one to volunteer to help unpack all of our belongings. It wasn't until late that night over a couple of six packs of Guinness that I found out about why he was so excited to be around the family. He had had a hard family life growing up and had felt like he finally belonged with the easy acceptance my family had of him.

A lot more of his actions seemed to make sense after that night. He and Rosalie were always the first ones to arrive and the last to leave. He was always the first one to get down to Lizzie's level and play with her. He would do anything with her, including playing tea party and dressing in whatever she asked of him. He had confessed that night that he really wanted to get married and have a couple of kids, but was unsure of whether or not Rosalie would be interested. I reassured him that despite Rosalie's unwillingness to discuss the subject, she wanted nothing more than marriage and kids with him, she just didn't want to scare him off with talking about it with him. Apparently, he took my advice to heart and they were engaged the next week. I don't think I had ever seen either of them happier.

Emmett and I had taken to hanging out whenever our schedules coincided. Since both of our schedules were pretty hectic, it only happened about once or twice a week. Most of the time it was just hanging out at the house watching sports and drinking beers, but one time, he convinced me to go get the tattoo that I had been thinking about getting since my daughter had been born. A week and a half ago, I had gotten her name and birth date written in a script tattooed over my heart. It had hurt like hell, but it had been worth it. Emmett had the final pieces of his sleeve on his right arm finished up while we were there. When he took his shirt off so that they tattoo artist could get to the top part of his shoulder, I peeked a glimpse at one of the tattoos that ran along the tops of his shoulder blades that said, 'wherever you are baby girl, I will find you.' When I asked him about it, all he would say about it was that it was his first tattoo. I never brought up the subject again since the pain on his face was evident when he spoke about it the first time.

I wrapped up my shower, and walked into my room, finding the clothes my mother had laid out for me. Apparently she wanted me to continue on in the circus theme since she had chosen a top hat, black jacket complete with tails, a red vest, and a button up shirt. I threw out the pants she chose for me once I tried them on and realized how tight they were. There was no way I was going to be caught dead in them. I replaced them with a pair of comfy jeans instead, and walked down stairs in relative comfort. When I got there I found the rest of my family in the kitchen, dressed in similar fashion. Emmett was dressed as the strong man, Rosalie as a trapeze artist, my daughter looking like a miniature version of her, my mother dressed in a fortune tellers getup, and my father as a lion tamer. He even had a stuffed animal lion draped across his shoulders.

I could tell that everyone had finished their 'lists' and was just waiting for the guests to start arriving since they were all standing around chatting. My aunt and uncle, Rosalie's parents wandered in from the backyard, wearing matching juggler costumes. When it got closer to the time the party was supposed to start, we put a sign on the door, directing people to go around the side of the house to the back yard. Emmett immediately started playing some of the games in order to win Rosalie and Lizzie some prizes. My mother had generously paid for the stuffed animals that were adorning the back walls of the tents the games were housed in. Anyone who played a game was guaranteed to win a prize. Lizzie grabbed my hand and started dragging me to the games she wanted to play.

I saw Bella with Alice, Jasper, and Bridgette out of the corner of my eye as I was throwing the last baseball at the milk bottles. They crashed down and Lizzie next to me screamed in delight. She pointed to the stuffed animal on the back wall, and the carnival worker handed it over to her.

"Daddy, look what I got!" she said excitedly shoving the pink monkey up so I could see it.

"I see it, munchkin. I also see Bella. Do you want to go say hi to her?" I asked.

I watched as she searched anxiously for Bella, and started running up to her once she spotted her. Bella was caught unawares as my daughter crashed into her from the side. I watched as she bent down to give Lizzie a hug. My eyes traveled over her form as I strolled towards them at a considerably slower pace than my daughter had. Bella was wearing a green sleeveless dress that showed off her shapely arms and legs. Her dainty collarbones were framed by the small straps that covered her shoulders. Her petite feet were encased by a pair of high-heeled sandals that had straps that wound half way up her calves. I could just imagine unwinding those ribbons from her legs and kissing my way from her toes up to her knees towards that little piece of heaven. I realized where my thoughts were headed and instantly derailed them. _No fantasizing at your child's birthday party. Get it together__,__ Masen!_ I overheard Bella introducing Lizzie to Jasper, Alice, and Bridgette, as I walked up to their small group.

"And this is my Daddy!" I heard Lizzie say as she grabbed my hand.

"Hi, Dr. Masen!" Bridgette said to me.

"Are you feeling better?" I asked her.

"Yup!" she said smiling brightly.

"Bridgette, let's go get our faces painted!" Lizzie said as she grabbed Bridgette's hand and started wandering off towards the tents.

I turned to Bella and pulled her into my arms, kissing her on the temple. She pulled back from me, but didn't leave the circle of my arms. The world shrunk down to just me and her as I stared into her eyes.

"Hi." I said as my right hand traveled up her back and rested on her shoulder with my thumb resting on her collarbone, gently brushing back and forth.

"Hi." she replied with a smile.

"I'm glad you came."

"So am I," she said as I started running my fingertips up and down her biceps, causing goosebumps to break out on her skin. Her breath hitched as I heard someone clearing their throat from right next to us.

I turned toward Alice and Jasper and stuck my hand out first to Jasper without moving my left arm from around Bella's waist and said, "We've never been introduced, but I'm Edward Masen. I've heard a lot about you from Bridgette."

"Jasper Whitlock, and this is my wife Alice." Jasper smirked as we shook hands.

I turned and offered my hand to Alice, but when she grabbed my hand she pulled me into her arms hugging me solidly. I was shocked at how strong she was for how petite she was. "Thank you for saving my baby. I'll always be grateful."

"You're welcome. It always makes my day to see my patients whole and healthy. I'm glad she's healing fast enough to come out today." I could feel Bella's hand creep around underneath my jacket and started playing with where my shirt was tucked into my pants. I started naming the muscles in the body in my head in order to not think about what her hands on me were doing to me. _Quadratus femoris, superior gemellus, piriformis, gluteus maximus, mmm... Bella's ass is the perfect example of a nice __taut__ gluteus maximus ... No, think of baseball, you ass! _

"I can't believe how you decorated for Lizzie's birthday. I love the circus theme!" Alice said as she clapped her hands together.

"I can't take credit for that. My mother was the one to come up with the designs, I just do what she tells me." I said as I smiled. "Would you like to meet her?" I asked as I started heading towards the center tent where the refreshments were held with extra tables and chairs. Later on there would be a magician performing in there.

"Yes, I want to ask her where she found those sparkle lights."

I kept Bella close to me as we walked figuring that her heels would sink into the grass and didn't want her to trip. _Admit it, it has nothing to do with the fact that she might trip, you just want to hold her close to you_. I spotted my family once we stepped inside the tent. I would have never noticed Bella's slight hesitation in her step if I hadn't been holding on to her so tightly. I looked at her and saw that her face had gotten extremely pale and her breathing seemed shallow. I paused and asked, "are you alright?"

"Yes, fine. Just a little bit of deja vu." she said in a strained voice. I rubbed circles on her back as she started walking with me again towards my family.

My mother's eyes lit up as she spotted my arm around Bella and she walked towards us meeting us in the middle of the tent. She held her hand out for Bella to shake as she said, "You must be Bella, I've heard so much about you from Lizzie and Edward here."

Bella turned to me and caught me rolling my eyes. She smirked at me as I took a deep breath. "Mother, this is Bella Swan, and Jasper and Alice Whitlock. Bella, Jasper and Alice, this is my mother, Elizabeth Masen. Jasper and Alice are the foster parents trying to adopt that little girl who was in the hospital on Monday. She's running around with Lizzie at the moment. I trust that I can let you entertain our guests as I go get us some drinks?" I asked what everyone wanted and headed over to the bar.

I was on my way back with the drinks when I spotted Emmett and Rosalie making their way over towards us with Emmett in the lead. I saw Emmett clasp Jasper's hand and pat him on the back in the stereotypical man's hug. As I walked up to the group I heard Jasper say, "small world, huh?"

"Yeah, totally. So how did you get invited to this shindig?" Emmett replied.

"Bella, here was invited by Edward." I watched as Emmett's eyes narrowed in on Bella. His head cocked to one side as if confused by what he saw. He stuck his hand out at Bella for her to shake. "Bella, this is my good friend Emmett McCarty." Alice gasped in surprise at this. Jasper turned to her as he finished what he was going to say with a confused look on his face. "He's one of the captains in the fire department. His house is down the street from the police department."

Bella looked down at his outstretched hand before clasping it with her own. When she looked up I saw that there were tears running down her face. "Isabella _McCarty_ Swan. I thought I'd never find you again, Emmers."

* * *

**A/N: Thanks goes out to my beta Pire. You are so sparkly, they could see you from outer space...**

**Special thanks to the last couple of reviewers for the last chapter. If I didn't send a review reply, I was having an argument with FF and it won. SO THANK YOU!  
**

**The Tickle Me Elmo Doll drowning incident really did happen... I have pictures... :D**

**What toys have your kids/nieces/nephews killed? Tell me a story... I like 'em....**


	4. Big Brother and Pizza

**A/N: not many kids killing off their toys, but there were quite a few of you who happily offed some toys, amazingly enough a lot of barbies were hurt. :D By far my favorite had to be the chopping of the barbie's heads off with the guillotine. That and getting rid of the talking toys (those are creepy!) Awesome stories guys!**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyer... I don't own.**

**No barbies were hurt in the making of this chapter... **

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter Four

Big Brother and Pizza

**BPOV**

When I walked to Alice's house, I couldn't stop my daydreams about Edward's body wrapped around me just as he was last night. Since their house was only a couple of blocks away from mine, I couldn't daydream long. I did however prolong the walk by walking up to Second Street to Sweet Jill's to pick up some muffins for Jasper, Alice, Bridgette, and me. I was temped to buy a brownie that was smothered in chocolate chip cookie dough for later, but passed since there was a certainty of birthday cake at the party we were going to. Cookie dough, hmm... I wondered if Edward would be adverse to me slathering cookie dough on him and licking it off him... _Down girl, you've only just kissed the man. Don't go asking about the kinky stuff and scare him off now._

I walked into Alice's house yelling out my hello's as I headed for the kitchen. I was greeted with Bridgette's smiling face as I walked into the light filled room.

"What didja bring me?" she asked excitedly.

I grabbed two of the muffins out of the bag and held them behind my back. "Pick a hand," I told her. She pointed to the right one and I handed her the blueberry muffin. She started walking back to her room with her muffin in hand as I started peeling the wrapper off of my own cranberry muffin, and grabbed a plate to put the extra muffins on. I noticed the French Press sitting in the middle of the counter, which looked to be the perfect color of mud as Jasper liked to call it. I poured myself a cup as Alice floated into the room, the large arms of her silky robe fluttering behind her as she stopped next to me. I handed the cup to Alice, knowing that it would be easier to just give it to her and pour myself another one. She doctored her coffee with cream and sugar and we both sat at the bar nursing our coffee quietly, enjoying the sound of the ocean that filtered through the open windows.

"God, that's good. My man makes a mean cup of joe. Thank goodness I married him," she said as she stared into the cup as if it held all the answers to life.

"I promise I won't tell him that's why you married him." I said jokingly as I bumped my shoulder into hers softly.

"What are you talking about, I married him to keep him away from you, you hussy!" she said as she bumped me back with a smile on her face.

"Where is your man anyways? It's not like him to let a good cup of coffee sit un-drunk." I asked.

"He's out for his run. You're earlier than normal, so you just missed him."

"You said I had to be here early, so I came when you asked," I said as I stuck my tongue out at her.

Bridgette chose that moment to walk back into the room, still dressed in her pj's. She yawned a bit before she asked, "we aren't going to get to bake today are we?"

"Sorry, pumpkin, I know it's your first Saturday back, but we've got to get ready for that party. You know Alice won't let us get away with not looking our best." I smiled at her and she nodded with reluctance. We had started our Saturday baking parties during December last year when we were baking up a storm for the coming holidays, and just continued since Bridgette loved it so much.

"Can I pick what we bake next week then?" she asked.

"Of course, sweetheart, what ever you want to make." Her face broke out into one of the largest smiles I had ever seen.

"Shopping," Alice said quietly, as if trying to get me to agree to it without realizing what it was she wanted.

"No." I disagreed, already knowing where this conversation was headed.

"You need something new! I know each and every thing that's in your closet, and let me tell you, nothing is appropriate for a summer afternoon child's birthday party. PLEASE? I'll let you drive?" She was resorting to begging and bargaining. _SWEET! That means I'll get my way for once._

~*~

It wasn't until five hours later, when Alice had blow dried and curled my hair and made-up my face to perfection that I realized, there was no way I was getting my way today. She was determined to make me as glammed up as she could since as she says, she never gets the chance to. When we were out shopping, I did however fall in love with the new yellow sundress that I was currently wearing. It made the most of the girls, and was light in the summer heat. I was nervously standing in the back yard of Edward's gigantic home, hoping to see him in the crowd of people milling about. I almost lost my balance as a small bundle ran into my legs. I quickly greeted Lizzie and introduced her to Bridgette, Alice, and Jasper.

When Edward joined us and asked a few questions of Bridgette, I couldn't keep my eyes off of his form in the old-styled tuxedo jacket. It was tailored closely to his frame, showing of the breadth of his shoulders. I wasn't really paying attention to the conversation he was having, and everything else really faded into the background when he pulled me into his arms and kissed me softly. I was running on autopilot from then on until we got to the tent where Edward's family was supposed to be.

My reverie was broken when I spotted someone across the tent that reminded me of an old picture of my father that I had. It was one of the few remaining possessions I had from my birth parents. The man across the way had brown curly hair and bright blue eyes. I had never seen anyone as large as him, he looked as if he could easily bench press a Volkswagen Beetle. I quickly brushed it off as deja vu when Edward asked about my hesitation. Edward introduced us to a statuesque woman with long silvery hair that sparkled in the sun light. The only indication of her age was the color of her hair since her face was only lightly lined from age. Alice immediately struck up a conversation with her, discussing the lighting that we could see around the back patio.

Edward had left momentarily, and I worked on getting my breathing under control. I was just about calmed down when I noticed the man who looked exactly like my father, was walking towards our group. I was so focused on his face, I didn't hear the conversation he started up with Jasper. The only thing I heard was his name, Emmett McCarty and Alice's indrawn breath. _It can't be... _I could remember the feel of the sunshine beating down on my brother and I as we ran towards the swimming hole out on the back of our old property. A boy gangly in comparison to this mammoth beside me now. I was brought out of my memories by Edward's presence on my side and noticed that Emmett had stuck out his hand. I couldn't stop my tears from spilling down my face as I reached out to grasp his outstretched hand. The warmth of his hand enveloped mine and I felt like I was home.

I could barely choke out, "Isabella _McCarty_ Swan. I thought I'd never find you again, Emmers."

I scarcely heard "...Bella?" before I was wrapped up in the arms that I had been missing all these years. I breathed in the scent of him and it was the same. The smell that would always remind me of sunshine and laughter. I continued crying quietly into his shoulder as he held me in his arms, my feet off the ground. I heard his voice whispering, "Shh, baby girl, it's alright. I've got you now..."

I calmed down a bit as Emmett's grasp tightened even more. "Emmers... can't... breath..."

"Oh, sorry, baby girl." Emmett carefully put me down and I sat at one of the large round tables that were all over the tent, running my fingers over his face, memorizing the changes in it. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just can't believe I finally found you." I said as I finally got my tears under control.

"I tried to find you when I turned eighteen. The adoption agency wouldn't release anything about you when I asked for more information," he said quietly.

"Yeah, Charlie put a hold on the release of information for me because James came after me again when he got out of prison." We both shuddered when I mentioned our previous foster care 'father' who had put us through so much. "Luckily, Charlie had been able to keep him from kidnapping me, since that was what they figured out he was trying to do."

"Who's Charlie?" Emmett asked.

"My adopted father. He's great, you would have loved him." I looked around at this point wondering where everyone was. I spotted the group of them huddled at one of the tables. Alice looked up as if she felt my gaze on her. She smiled at me and continued to distract everyone else. _I should thank her for keeping them away so Emmett and I could talk for a little bit_. "You know, Charlie and Renee thought you were my imaginary friend for the longest time. They didn't know that you were my brother until I was fifteen."

"What did you do, not talk until you were ten?" he joked.

"Close, I was eleven." I said seriously.

"Oh, baby girl," he said as he pulled me back into his arms and kissed me on the forehead. I took a deep breath in as I tried to keep from crying again. I hated to cry and I was tired of it. He released me and I sat back in the chair.

"It's okay. Charlie and Renee were great. They put me in counseling and that really helped me to open up to them. They showed me with patience and diligence, that they were never going to leave me. Even when they got divorced, they were good at showing me that they weren't going to give up on me. What about you? Did you ever get adopted?"

"Nope, I got bounced around to a couple of foster homes and some group homes until I was old enough to get out of the system. I moved back into the area as soon as I could and have been living in Long Beach ever since. How bout you?"

"Charlie moved out to Victorville when he retired and Renee ended up moving out to Jacksonville after the divorce. They left me the house I grew up in, in Downey, but I sold that and bought a tiny house in Belmont Shore. I live about two blocks from Alice, who's my best friend. I didn't really hear what Jasper was saying but do you know him somehow?"

"Yeah, we're acquaintances through work. I'm one of the captains for the Long Beach Fire Department, so I've seen him on scenes from time to time. I've even been out drinking with him a couple of times."

"So, is it true that your mom named you Baby Girl?" I heard Alice ask as she walked up to us.

"Yeah, she was kinda odd like that." I said as everyone else came trickling back and sitting around the table that we were at.

"Odd," Emmett said incredulously. "She was loopy! Remember the time she tried to feed us crunchy peanut butter, mayonnaise, and sweet pickle sandwiches?" Everyone cringed at the sound of that combination.

"Yeah, you fed it to the dog for me so I didn't have to eat it." Alice started busting up laughing when I said that.

"What?" Jasper and Emmett said at the same time.

"I always wondered where she got that from, she kept feeding stuff to her dog whenever she didn't like it. Renee totally freaked when she finally figured out why the dog was so overweight." Alice said between giggles.

"Hey, it worked!" I exclaimed, my face immediately going red. "Renee wasn't any better a cook than mom had been. I learned all I know about cooking from Alice's mom."

"How did you get the name Bella then?" Edward asked as he snaked an arm around my waist.

"Emmett named me." I said as I felt my face heat. Everyone turned to Emmett and looked at him expectantly.

"She was one year old when I realized that baby girl was not a normal name for a baby girl. I asked Mom about it and she said that if I wanted her to have a different name, I had to be the one to decide what it would be."

"And what was it you named me after, Emmers?" I said as I smirked at him.

"_La Bella Italia_, my favorite restaurant." Everyone busted up laughing at that point. When they started calming down, he continued, "I was only five years old, come on, give a kid a break!"

Everyone just laughed harder at him. I was so glad I found him. He was the same as I remembered; same happy-go-lucky attitude that never failed to make me feel better. I wiped at the tears that were leaking out the corners of my eyes from laughing so hard.

"Wait," the tall blonde that had been hanging off of Emmett earlier, interrupted our laughter. I looked closer at her and realized it was Rosalie, the charge nurse at the hospital who had sneaked Jasper and Alice into Bridgette's room. I smiled at her and she smiled back at me as she continued, "You mean, she's the Baby Girl that's written on your tattoo on your back?"

"Yup. I swore to myself the day we got separated I would find her again. And now I did." he said as he squeezed my hand once again.

"You have a tattoo on your back with my name on it?" I asked incredulously. "Will you show me some time?"

He nodded his head as Alice piped up, "You should show him yours, Bella."

I gave her a dirty look. Emmett said, "You have a tattoo?"

"You can show them, just be careful. Come on, I love your tattoo." Alice said as she bounced in her chair a little.

"Only you would ask me to do that in a skirt, Alice." I grumbled, as I carefully scooted my chair back and grabbed a large napkin off the table. I dropped the napkin into my lap as I hiked my left leg up and balanced the ball of my foot on the edge of the table, keeping the napkin meticulously in my lap so as not to give anyone a free show. I pulled the ribbons that were wrapped around my leg up and down so that the space around the inside of my ankle was clear. The tattoo was a large E in cursive script that started two inches above my ankle bone and the bottom of it wrapped around the bone. If you didn't know what you were looking at you wouldn't have known it was an E. Edward stood up to see it since he was on my left side and couldn't see it. I turned my foot so that he could get a better view of it when Emmett had seen it. His hand ghosted over it and sent shivers up my spine.

"Geez, baby girl! Did you have to put it on one of the most painful places to get a tattoo?" Emmett asked as I fixed the ribbons and dropped my foot back to the ground. I scooted back in and put the napkin back up on the table.

"I needed something to remember you by, and that was nothing compared to what you went through in the year of hell." Edward's hand came up to rest along my shoulder, his thumb gently rubbing along the base of my neck. The warmth from his hand seeped into my skin, relaxing me, keeping the bad memories at bay.

"Nuh-uh, baby girl, we're not talking about that right now. We can discuss that later, but not now, nothing's gonna bring down the moment of finding you again."

I put my arm around him and squeezed him tight. I dropped my gaze to Rosalie's hand which was currently wrapped around Emmett's right bicep. I was nearly blinded by the sparkly ring that was on her third finger and I realized what that meant.

"You're engaged?" I said surprised.

"Yeah, we got engaged last week. Are you upset?" he looked a little sheepish.

"No, I'm just shocked. Not only did I find my big brother, but now I'm going to have a sister!" I was as excited as Alice finding the perfect pair of Jimmy Choo's on clearance at Nordstroms.

"I've never had a sister before either," Rosalie said. I reached around Emmett and gave her a one armed hug. "Will you be one of my bridesmaids?"

I nodded my head at her, "You'll have to have Alice help you go shopping, it's her favorite thing. She can smell sales."

Alice, who had been talking quietly with Jasper, popped her head up at the sound of her name. "Shopping? Did I hear someone say they need to go shopping?" Everyone chuckled at this.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." We heard as Lizzie and Bridgette came tearing into the tent, shocking us all with their delight. "Catch," she said and Edward had barely enough time to turn to Lizzie as she threw herself into his arms. Bridgette climbed into Alice's lap and Alice immediately started putting Bridgette's hair back into the ponytails that they had been in before the two of them went running off together. When Lizzie saw what Alice was doing, she squirmed onto my lap and pointed to her own messy hair and said, "fix."

"Is that how you ask for something, Lizzie?" Edward said gently reminding her of her manners.

"No," she turned half around so she could look at me and asked, "Bella, may you pwease can you fix my hair?"

"Sure, I would love to." Lizzie turned back around as I took out the ponytail holder that was barely hanging on to half of her hair. I combed my fingers through her fine, blond hair as Emmett started poking her in the side making her squirm in my lap. I smacked him on his shoulder and scolded him, "Emmett, leave her alone so I can fix this."

"Geez, baby girl, you sure hit harder than you used to." Emmett said as he rubbed his shoulder.

"That's 'cause I was five." I rolled my eyes and finished putting Lizzie's hair to rights. "There you go, all done."

Lizzie turned around in my lap and looked up at me with her big green eyes and asked, "Bella, may I pwease can I have cake?"

"That's up to your dad, sugar pie." My heart melted to a puddle of goo when she asked me for cake. This little girl knew exactly how to work me.

"Daddy?" she turned those big green eyes towards her father.

"Of course you can, munchkin. Why don't you go tell everyone that it's time for cake and then you can open your presents?" She and Bridgette ran off again, weaving around through the tents, telling everyone that it was time for cake. By the time they came back and everyone else at the party had trickled in, Elizabeth had the cake ready with all the candles lit, and we started singing her 'Happy Birthday'. She made her wish and blew out her candles.

Edward and I sat with his arm around my shoulders and watched as Lizzie moved on to open her presents. She giggled ecstatically as she opened present after present. It wasn't until after she had opened everything, that they started the magic show that would close out the party.

Lizzie sat on Edward's lap, but pulled me close to play with my hair all through out the show. I rested my head on Edward's shoulder so that she could run her fingers through it as she watched. Edward's fingers drew patterns on my bare skin. I shivered a couple of times and he whispered in my ear, "Cold?"

I looked up at him and shook my head. He winked as he squeezed my shoulder, then gently pushed my head back onto his shoulder and continued the same patterns along my arm. We sat like that in comfortable silence and watched the end of the show.

~*~

"Lizzie-bear, what did you wish for your birthday?" Emmett asked her after all of the guests had left. It was just Edward's family, Jasper, Alice, Bridgette and I, since Lizzie had been attached to me ever since the magic show. I didn't want to leave anytime soon as it was, since I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my brother. Edward and Rosalie's parents had both left a little bit ago, saying that they would leave us to our own ends as it had been a long day for all of them. We were all sitting around the large family room that was next to the bar area in the kitchen where Lizzie and I had sat when we had our cookies. Edward had ordered some pizzas to be delivered while the carnival workers started tearing down the backyard. The cleaning crew Elizabeth had hired was cleaning up everything else. Lizzie and Bridgette were laying on the large ottoman with their chins propped up in their hands, watching Mary Poppins, which turned out to be Bridgette's favorite movie as well. All the adults were sitting on the large couches, talking and sharing stories.

"I wished for Bella to go with us to the aquarium tomorrow. Pwease Daddy? Pwease Bella?" She pulled out the puppy dog look that I had trouble saying no to, and I turned to look at Edward. His eyes sparkled as he infinitesimally nodded his head yes. I smiled back at him and looked back at his daughter and said, "I would love to go with you. Just tell me where and when."

"Yay! Daddy, she's gonna go!" Lizzie said as she danced in place.

"I heard her munchkin. How 'bout I pick you up around ten tomorrow?" Edward asked me. I got lost in his eyes and I nodded. "Great!" he said.

Ten minutes later the movie was over and Lizzie collapsed onto Edward's chest, saying, "my tired, Daddy." I looked up at the clock and saw that it was getting pretty late. I looked over at Jasper and Alice and noticed that Bridgette had curled up in Alice's lap, her eyes heavy with sleep.

"I'm going to go put her to bed real quick. Wait for me before you leave?" Edward asked as he got up with Lizzie in his arms.

"Sure."

"Want Bella, too, Daddy." I heard Lizzie softly say against his chest.

"You mind?"

"Not at all." I got up and followed him up the stairs to her room. She had already been put into her pj's before dinner, so he just put her in bed and tucked her in.

"Night munchkin." Edward said as he kissed her head. "I love you."

"Love you, too, Daddy. Bella, hugs." She said as she held out her arms for me to hug her. I leaned down and hugged her little body to me.

"Good night, sugar pie. I'll see you tomorrow." Her eyes were closed tight and she was almost instantly asleep.

We headed back down towards the stairs when Edward grabbed my hand and pulled me into an open doorway. He closed the door behind him, pushing me up against the wall. He crushed his lips onto mine feverishly as he snaked his tongue into my mouth. He pressed closer to me as his hands started moving restlessly up and down my sides, causing me to shiver every time he got closer and closer to my breasts. I arched my back, trying to get him to touch my nipples which were aching with need. When he finally fulfilled my silent request, I moaned into his mouth. He pinched my nipples through the thin fabric of the sundress, causing me to jump and then moan again. His lips left mine as he alternated kisses and licks down my neck, pausing momentarily to swirl his tongue over my collarbone, and head towards my breasts.

I felt his long fingers push aside the fabric covering my breasts and his lips were just an inch away from ecstasy, when I heard _I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you_ coming from Edward's pocket. Edward looked up at me and we both burst out into laughter at the song by Air Supply. He pushed my dress back into place and I whimpered as he squeezed the nipple one last time.

"Seriously, that's Emmett's ringtone. If I don't answer that he'll come find us." He said as he made some final adjustments to the top of my dress.

"Why don't we just go downstairs? It'll be faster."

"Alice and Jasper are getting ready to go but I wanted to ask you a question before you guys leave. You busy Tuesday night, baby girl?" Emmett asked as we came back down stairs. His eyes immediately went to my lips suspiciously. I blushed as I licked them self-consciously. He narrowed his eyes at Edward, but didn't say anything.

"No, why?" I asked as I bit my lip.

"I think we should all go out for beer at Murphy's on Tuesday." Emmett said with a giant smile that showed his dimples.

"What, Emmett? You're going to bail on our plans?" Edward asked.

"No, I figured you'd be there since you can't seem to keep your hands off my baby sister." Emmett said as he rolled his eyes at Edward.

"Oh. Okay," Edward said easily.

"Isn't that the bar that has the passport?" I asked.

"Passport?" Edward frowned in confusion.

"Yeah, it's seventy beers from around the world, and once you finish them, you get your name on a plaque and a free t-shirt. I've done it twice now." Emmett explained.

"Cool, sounds good." I said. I watched as Jasper came walking towards us with Bridgette asleep in his arms. Alice was walking beside him with my purse and sweater.

"Alright baby girl, I'll see you then." Emmett enveloped me in his warm embrace. We stayed like that for a few moments. He released me and Edward grabbed my hand and started walking with us out to Jasper's SUV. Jasper put Bridgette in her booster seat, as Alice climbed into the front. Edward kissed the top of my head as he pulled me into a hug.

"I'll see you tomorrow. I had a great day today." Edward said quietly.

"So did I." I whispered back.

"We'll have to finish what we started some other time." Edward whispered in my ear as I tingled with anticipation. He kissed me lightly and then helped me into the car. I ended up falling asleep that night to fantasies of how exactly he would fulfill that promise.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks as always to my beta Pire. See, the rain did make you sparkly again... :D**

**I haven't recommended any stories on here yet, cause I read A LOT and it's hard to just pick one, but there's this one that I'm currently reading, that's so good you HAVE to read it. So, if you haven't already, you should read Not Like This by pomme_de_terre over on Twilighted. And have a box of tissues ready, I'm convinced she has stock in Kleenex. It has to be the worst/best story I've read in a while. Worst because it makes you cry. Best because it's GOOD. Not just good, it's amazing, wonderful, fantabulous. So if you haven't already, check it out. K enough of my fangirl moment...**

**Sweet Jill's is a bakery on 2nd St, in Belmont Shore, CA. If you stop in there I would recommend the brownie with chocolate cookie dough, and the red velvet cake. They have**_** really**_** good baked goods.**  
**  
Murphy's is a bar in the 2nd story of the Belmont Athletic Club. They have a passport and it is about 70 beers that are both imported and domestic. I recommend the Czeckvar (Czech Republic) and Framboise (Belgium).**

**T****he peanut butter, mayonnaise, and pickle sandwiches were real. They were on rye bread, and I hated them...**

**What's the worst food combination you've ever had to eat?**  
**  
Oh, and I'm going to start sending out previews of the next chapter to anyone who reviews... So, want to know what's next for the happy couple? Push the button below and let me know...**


	5. The Aquarium and Mom's Chicken Pot Pie

**A/N: You all have some crazy food combinations. Thanks for all the love people, I really appreciate it! **

Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyer... I don't own.

Happy Reading!

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter Five

The Aquarium and Mom's Chicken Pot Pie

EPOV

I heard the alarm go off in the morning, shocked that Lizzie hadn't gotten me up before it had a chance to do it's job. I slapped the thing off and rolled over, finding Lizzie's warm body next to me in bed. _Oh, yeah._ She had had a nightmare last night, and, trembling, asked to sleep in my bed. She wouldn't tell me what her nightmare was about, she just kept crying hysterically.

I carefully got out of bed without disturbing her and went to go take a shower. I kept thinking about yesterday and the birthday party, how beautiful Bella looked, how Lizzie seemed to get closer to her. Lizzie had gotten pretty attached to Bella when she had met her the first time, but to see Lizzie interact with Bella warmed my heart. Lizzie didn't have an easy time getting comfortable with many adult women. She had my mom and her aunt Rosalie, but other than that she shied away from them. Bella was the first woman that she got close to since her mother, Tanya, left us.

When Lizzie asked for Bella to help put her down last night, I realized that this is what Lizzie had been missing in her life. Even when Tanya was around she rarely showed Lizzie any affection. The way Bella lovingly fixed her hair was something Tanya rarely did. I learned early on how to get Lizzie up and going in the mornings, since Tanya couldn't be bothered most days. I was quickly up to my elbows in bows and hair ties. Luckily, she grew out of the 'popotails' and just liked to have her hair in a headband, which she could do herself. I rarely had to figure out which bows matched her outfit anymore.

I thought back to when Bella and Emmett met yesterday. Alice had pulled us all aside, quickly explaining that they needed a little time to reconnect. I realized that this was the brother Bella had been speaking about on Friday night. I was so happy for her that she found her brother, but I couldn't help the small spark of jealousy that squeezed around my heart as Emmett pulled her into his arms as she cried. I wanted to be the one to hold her as she cried. I wanted to be the one she went to for comfort. _You're jealous of your soon-to-be-cousin, her brother? _Yeah, it was a little irrational.

I finished up my shower, got dressed and woke up my daughter. She sleepily got up and wandered down to her room. She picked out what she wanted to wear, and asked me if Bella would like it. It made me chuckle that we were both dressing to impress Bella. I left her alone to get dressed and wandered back into my room to text Bella.

**We're about to leave in ten minutes. Want me to pick up breakfast? -E**

Sure. Sounds good. -B

Any suggestions? -E

Coffee and pastries from Babette's Feast? -B

Sure. See you in about a half hour. -E

K... Later! XO -B

I wandered back down the hall and knocked on the door to Lizzie's room. "You ready to go munchkin?"

"Yup! Let's go! I want to find Nemo!" I groaned and realized I was going to be watching Finding Nemo for the next month. I had _just_ gotten her to watch other movies.

"Alright, let's get in the car, we're gonna pick up some breakfast for Bella on the way to her house alright?" She nodded her head on the way to the car while I grabbed the Finding Nemo DVD and her sippy cup of milk since I knew she would want to watch the movie while drinking something on the way over to Bella's.

We stopped at the bakery that Bella had recommended and we put our order in. I let Lizzie decide on what to do for breakfast, and she played by herself as we waited for our order to come up. I could just imagine what it would be like to live in this area, where Bella and I could bring Lizzie to places like this, when I was interrupted by Lizzie pulling on my arm. "'reakfast is ready, Daddy!"

We picked up our food, got in the car, and drove the short distance down to Bella's house. I grabbed the food as Lizzie ran up to the door and knocked. My breath stuck in my throat momentarily when I first saw her. The morning sunlight shone upon her shiny brown hair and nearly naked face. Her natural beauty was enhanced by the happiness that was evident on her face when she smiled down at my daughter. She scooped her up and hugged her, then looked at me and smiled. She turned and walked into the house leaving the door open for me. I shook myself from my stupor and followed her in.

Her house was small yet... quaint. There were a few framed eight by tens sitting on an entry table. One was of a presumably small Bella with a woman that was probably her adoptive mother. There was one that was taken in what looked to be a dance club. Bella had a huge smile and she was holding a drink high. Alice's head was poked into the frame giving the camera-man a goofy face. I smiled at the unknown memory of Bella's and looked forward to making some memories of my own with Bella. Bella and Lizzie's laughter sounded from around the corner and my feet pulled me in that direction. On my way through the front room which was a comfortable living room I headed towards a hallway, and passed what looked like an office on the right. I found them in the kitchen where Bella was pulling plates out of the cupboards and Lizzie was sitting at one of the bar stools.

Bella walked up to me and said, "Good morning."

"It definitely is," I replied as I set the goodies down on the counter and pulled her into my arms. I kissed her lips softly and then set her way from me before I was tempted to do things I shouldn't in front of my impressionable daughter. My arms ached for her to be back in them but I stifled that feeling since I knew there would be many stolen moments through out the day.

"Do you want to eat inside or out on the patio?" she asked as she started pulling the croissants out of the bag.

"Patio!" Lizzie exclaimed as she hopped down from the bar stool. She ran towards the back door which was right next to the kitchen. I grabbed the coffees as Bella walked towards the back door with the plate of pastries in hand. We sat out on the patio and spoke of inconsequential things as we ate our breakfasts.

~*~

Soon after we loaded up into my car and were on our way to the Aquarium. It didn't take us very long to get there and we were soon all walking hand in hand towards the entrance, with Lizzie in between Bella and I. I handed the tickets to the lady at the front and started to look around.

"Daddy, Daddy, look at the whale!" Lizzie said excitedly as she pointed up at the life size model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.

"Yup, baby girl, I see it." I smiled at Lizzie's enthusiasm.

"Look, there's a baby one! She's so cute!" We wandered around the exhibits, Lizzie getting excited when we found the tank with all the clown fish in it. She fruitlessly tried to count all the Nemo fish she saw, but quickly got frustrated since they kept moving around on her. "Daddy, they won't stop moving!"

"That's because that's what they're supposed to do," I replied.

"Oh, okay," she shrugged nonchalantly. We moved on to some of the other exhibits and ended up in what was like a glass tunnel. There were fish on both sides as we walked through. To the right some divers were swimming around in the large tanks and Lizzie quickly waved at them and they waved back. "Bella, look!"

"I see sugar pie!" Bella replied. Lizzie ran over to Bella and quickly grabbed her hand. We headed outside to look at the areas where you could touch the things that you would normally find in tidepools. There were all sorts of things to touch and feel.

Lizzie squealed excitedly when she was touching the sea cucumber exclaiming, "It's slimy, Bella, touch it." I watched as the two of them went through the other things in the exhibit feeling the different textures. I was standing back from the exhibit watching their interaction when I heard the voice from all my nightmares.

"Edward, fancy meeting you here." I turned and saw the woman I had hoped to never see again.

"What do you want, Tanya?" I asked impatiently. I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration.

"Just to talk. We can talk right?" I looked over at Bella and saw she was looking at me. I raised my eyebrows in a silent question and she nodded at me and went to play with Lizzie at the shark pool. Tanya and I walked over towards the small outdoor cafe and sat down at one of the tables.

"You're just lucky Lizzie hasn't seen you. She still has nightmares about you leaving us." I tried to get this conversation going so that I could get back to Lizzie and Bella.

"Ah, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. I've changed my mind. I want Lizzie back, and you as well." she said calmly while studying her nails.

"You have got to be kidding me." I said incredulously. "You left _us_, remember? You can't just change your mind and think life is going to do what you want. I've moved on; Lizzie's finally moving on. Why can't you just do the same?"

"Because, I've found that divorcing you has, how should I say, limited the power I was able to wield in the social circles that I have become accustomed to moving in. Without the Masen last name, I've been unable to live as I had previously. I want to be where I was in social standing before our divorce."

"I don't get what the logic of you trying to get me back has in any of this? You know there's no way I'll take you back, and why would I give custody of Lizzie up to you?" I was completely flabbergasted at her logic.

"Ah, but don't you see? That's the beauty of this plan. Since I am the one who 'initiated' our divorce, my social standing has gone down. But if it comes out that you were abusing me, and abusing our daughter, I will be back in the game. I will do anything I have to in order to get what I deserve. If you don't come back to me, I will ruin you." She looked up and I saw the determination glinting in her eyes.

"You are out of your mind! I never hit you or Lizzie. In fact, you were the more abusive towards her since you ignored her all the time. There's no way, you have no proof. I won't deal with this." I got up to leave the table.

She made me pause as she grabbed my arm. "Think it over, Edward. Do you really want Lizzie going into foster care while all of this is straightened out? It could take weeks, months even to get this taken care of. Don't worry, I'll let you have your little pet on the side, if that's what you're worried about."

"Don't you ever talk about Bella that way! I'm done with this conversation. You have no grounds, and I'm not going to even contemplate giving in to your demands." I shook off her arm and left. I walked quickly towards the shark pools where Bella was laughing with Lizzie as they touched the rays and sharks. I walked up behind Bella and wrapped my arms around her, breathing in her scent, letting it relax me.

"Are you alright? What did she want?" she asked quietly, so as not to alert Lizzie of what was going on.

"I think I will be. I'll explain it all later tonight. I need to make a phone call to a friend though, are you two going to be okay?" I asked, rubbing my hand up and down her arm, just needing to touch her and be reminded that there were some decent people out in the world.

She turned around in my arms and kissed me on the lips. "Yeah, we're good, she's been saying 'fish are friends, not food' to the sharks whenever they come by," she chuckled at the antics of Lizzie.

"Alright, I shouldn't be longer than ten minutes, I'm just going to be leaving him a voicemail." I pulled my phone out and stepped away from the shark pools.

I quickly dialed the number for my lawyer and friend, Carlisle Cullen. "Hey, Carlisle, it's Edward. Tanya's kicking up a fuss about trying to get custody of Lizzie. She's threatening to blackmail me into getting back with her. Please call me back as soon as you can about whether or not this is possible. Thanks."

I walked back over to where Bella and Lizzie were playing, and paused for just a moment as I watched them. Resolution came over me as I realized there was nothing I wanted more than to have the three of us together for the rest of our lives. I wasn't going to let Tanya and her scheming ruin what we had.

I walked over to Bella and put my arm around her, just reveling in the feel of her soft skin. She looked up at me and smiled as I leaned in to kiss her quickly. She looked over at me and smiled calmly.

"We need to talk. Is there any way we can discuss some stuff privately? I think I need to explain a bit more about Tanya," I said.

"Why don't you and Lizzie come over for dinner tonight? Lizzie can go over and play with Bridgette over at Alice and Jasper's since they're only a block away. I'll invite Jasper and Alice to join us for dinner when we're done talking. Alice will do anything for me to make her mom's chicken pot pie." She smiled at me once again and I was amazed at her ability to be so supportive of me.

"That sounds great. Thank you so much." I kissed her temple while squeezing her shoulder tight.

"It's no problem. I'll go call Alice right now and see if I can get the plans all worked out." I watched as she dug around in her purse and stepped away to call Alice. Lizzie pulled me over to where she was standing watching the sharks and started singing the 'just keep swimming' song to the sharks as they swam by.

"How are the sharks doing, munchkin?" I asked her as I stuck my hand in the water to feel one of the rays as it passed.

"They're not eating any fish like the good sharks that they are! See this one keeps coming up for me to pet!" she said as she pet the Zebra shark swimming by.

Bella walked back up and asked, "Lizzie, how would you like to go play with Bridgette for a little while?"

"Really? I wanna go!" she clapped excitedly.

"Alright, have we seen all we need to see?" I asked.

"Yup, I found Nemo, and Dory, and the Jellys, and Bruce..." she grabbed both of our hands as we headed towards the exit. When we got out to the parking lot, Lizzie begged for us to swing her. We did and she laughed all the way to the car.

We got in the car and headed back to Bella's house. Bella and I walked Lizzie over to the Whitlock's and Lizzie squealed with excitement when her and Bridgette saw each other. They quickly grabbed hands and ran off to play together. Bella hugged Alice real quick and said, "Thanks again for doing this. Dinner will be around six. Just call when you're on your way over."

"No problem. You babysit for me on short notice all the time, it's about time I get to pay you back." We said our goodbyes and headed back over to Bella's house. She opened the front door and we both got comfortable on the couches.

"So, what's up?" Bella asked as she curled up into my arms. I rested one arm on the back of the sofa and wrapped the other around her holding her tight.

"You know how when you first came over to my house last week?" She nodded her head. "I said that the reason for the false call was my ex Tanya?" She nodded again. "That woman at the Aquarium was Tanya. She wants to blackmail me into giving her back custody of Lizzie."

"What? Why? And how could she do that?" she asked with a growing worry in her eyes.

"See, back in Chicago, my family is old money," I started as I picked at the loose thread on the blanket that ran along the back of the couch. "My mother and father moved out here about thirty years ago, so that they could raise me away from the social entanglements that being a 'Masen' would include. They didn't want me to have to play the game that they barely escaped from. My grandfather made it possible for me to go to school at one of the best schools out there, something to do with traditions and all that. I met Tanya there at one of the sorority parties. We dated through most of my pre-med, and got engaged a year into my med school. We had a long engagement and got married after about a year into my residency. About a year after we were married, I realized that she was more interested in having my last name attached to her than having _me_ attached to her. Any Masen would have done the trick, hell, she would have been happier if it had been my grandfather she had married since she would have outlived him. But luckily my grandfather is very happily married to his wife, and has been for the last forty five years.

"It didn't get to it's worst, until she got pregnant." I ran my hands through my hair, tugging it a little at the ends, trying to relieve the tension I felt. "Two years after we got married, she got pregnant. Which she had sworn she wouldn't do. She had screwed up, took some antibiotics and forgot her birth control wouldn't work. I had never been so excited in my life. Her immediate reaction would be to terminate the pregnancy. The only reason why she didn't was because I threatened to divorce her without a penny to her name. Luckily my grandfather had insisted on a pre-nup and she would have walked away with nothing. She still did four years later and has been trying to scam me out of money ever since. She's come up with the idea that if she has custody of Lizzie, she'll have some hold over me. No doubt she's going to try and get child support as well out of this. I've been the one taking care of Lizzie for all of her life."

"Wow, she sounds like a real piece of work. Do you have a lawyer that you can have look into this?" Bella asked with only concern in her eyes. Her hand tightened around my bicep, reassuring me.

"Yeah, that was the phone call I made shortly after speaking with Tanya. Carlisle handled my divorce so he's familiar with the kind of stuff she's pulled before. I left him a message asking him to look into what she could possibly pull and how to protect myself against it."

"I'm so sorry, Edward. I'll be her for you no matter what. If you need _anything_ just let me know," she said as I pulled her into my lap. I tucked her head under my chin, and we sat in silence for a while. After a bit she pulled me up and directed me towards her stereo, which had an iPod hooked up to it. "Put something on. I'm going to start dinner."

I looked through her playlists and found one named Relax. As I flipped through the playlist, I realized it was almost the same as one of my own. Imogen Heap's _Hide and Seek _started flowing out of the speakers, which immediately put me at ease. Bella had a pot of water on the stove and was chopping up some veggies when I walked into the kitchen. By the time she was done chopping and had tossed the veggies in the water,_ Clair De Lune_ came on. We danced around the kitchen slowly holding onto each other, just rocking back and forth.

"My mom and I used to dance like this. I remember her picking me up anytime Clair De Lune came on and dancing with me. Usually it was in the kitchen. She may have been odd, but she loved us. She loved us very much."

We continued to dance slowly until the song came to a close. After that, she quickly put me to work, stirring a white sauce that she was letting come to a boil. We worked in sync with each other. It was rather strange but comforting cooking with someone, instead of just for someone. Tanya had never done that. _Seriously, I need to stop comparing her to Tanya. There's just no comparison. Bella is a million times better than Tanya._

Bella had just put the pot pie into the oven, when Alice called saying they were on the way over. Bella handed me a bottle of wine and a wine key, asking if I would open it. "By the way, I need to know what you are okay with me sharing with Alice. She's going to ask what tonight was about at some point and I don't want to share with her something you aren't comfortable having me sharing with her. If you don't want me to tell her I won't."

"No, it's okay. You can tell her whatever you want. I'd rather there not be any secrets between friends, and I consider them friends."

"Is that what we are Edward? Friends?" she asked curiously. I felt my heart drop when I realized that's what she thought we were.

"I was hoping we were more than that, actually. But if you just want to be friends, I understand." I said a bit dejectedly. I looked down, trying to hide the hurt in my eyes.

"No, you silly man." she said as she grabbed my face, and brought it up to look into her eyes. She searched my eyes for a moment. "Edward, what do you want? Where do you see this going?"

"I want you to be my girlfriend. I want to be your friend, your lover, your confidante. I want you to be mine and for me to be yours. Forever if it's possible," I said with conviction. I was hoping she could see the earnestness in my face.

"I am yours. For as long as you'll have me," she pulled my lips down to meet hers, immediately opening her lips and snaking her tongue into my mouth to slide along with mine. I was momentarily stunned at her boldness, but instantly responded, pulling her tight to me, letting my hands wander down her back and towards her perfect ass. I lifted her up and sat her on the kitchen counter, parting her legs. I was instantly hard and couldn't help but gain some friction on her jean-covered warmth. She moaned into my mouth as she plunged her fingers into my hair, holding it tight, just how I like it. We paused as we heard the front door slam and the slapping of flip flops along Bella's hardwood floors. I pulled away from her reluctantly as we both breathed heavily, staring deeply into each other eyes. I stepped away from Bella and she crossed her legs as she tried to smooth down her hair and clothes.

"DADDY!" I heard my munchkin scream as she threw herself at me. It would never be quite the same without her interruptions in my life.

**

* * *

**

A/N: Thanks goes out to my beta Pire... Cause you're the sh*t... And yes, I love elipses... Can't you tell?

**Special thanks goes out to my mom... Cause when my computer crashed, she let me use hers to finish writing this... **

**Yet again, I'm going to bribe you all for reviews by giving out a sneak peak of the chapter to come.... Please review!!! I love them!**

**What's your favorite comfort food?**


	6. Cloves and Margaritas

**A/N: Thanks goes out to my beta Pire. As usual.. you are the sh*t... I love it when we speak Russian...**

**THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed. You put my story over the 200 mark last chapter and I LOVE IT!!! I love everything you wrote and have read and tried to respond to every single one. All your responses made me hungry... **

**Round of applause goes to my mother. I wrote this from her laptop since my hard-drive died and I had to replace it.**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyers. I don't own...**

**Happy Reading!**

**

* * *

Exes and Ohs**

Chapter six

Cloves and Margaritas

BPOV

_I woke up to a warm body next to me. I rolled over and stared at the handsome man next to me. His hair was a riotous mess of auburn locks shining in the brilliant morning sunlight. My fingers itched to run through the chaos and test to see if it was as soft as it looked. My gaze wandered down to his eyebrows, which even in sleep, seemed drawn together, as if concentrating. I longed to smooth out the tension carried there. My gaze wandered even further to his incredibly long lashes which formed fans against his lower lids, fluttering as his eyes moved behind his eyelids._

_My gaze moved on to the bridge of his nose, which I was shocked to see that it wasn't bruised considering how often he pinched it yesterday. His long, straight nose and high cheekbones pointed down to a pair of full soft lips that contrasted with the sharp angles of his face. I ran my fingertips over those kissable lips, softly brushing over the full bottom lip, and carefully tracing the dip in the top one. He groaned a bit as I let my fingers trail down his neck, over the tightly corded tendons, down along his shoulder and down his bicep. I ghosted my hands back up his arm and over the rugged planes of his chest. He let out a moan as I circled around his nipples. The sheets rustled slightly as he rubbed his legs together and pressed his growing erection up against my thigh. A groan escaped his lips as I lightly grazed his nipples with my fingertips. One of my hands continued down towards where his cock was now standing at full attention, while my other hand started pinching and twisting his nipple. When I took his large erection in hand, I watched as his bright green eyes popped open._

_"Bella," he growled before he rolled me over onto my back with his knee pressed between my thighs. He attacked my lips with fervor, roughly biting and sucking as he claimed my mouth as his own. I arched into his hands as he kneaded and pinched my nipples. My hands, which had wandered around to his shoulders, grabbed tightly, digging my nails in slightly, as his mouth left mine. His lips trailed down my neck, inhaling deep, sucking and nipping at the skin. The moans that I tried to keep behind my lips, escaped as his hands left my breasts to grab my ass and pull me up against his throbbing cock. He lined up my wet slit with his dick, rubbing the head up along my clit. I was almost certain I was going to come from just the sensation of him thrusting along my pussy. Our heavy breathing matched in time to his thrusts and I was about to beg for just a bit more when he paused, just at my entrance, looking into my eyes asking silently for permission to_

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

_Damn alarm!_ I slapped it off and rolled over realizing that the harsh reality of the morning sunlight on the empty spot on my bed made me wish I could go right back to that dream. _And what a dream it was_.

It was Tuesday, and while Edward and I talked yesterday, that had been all we were able to do. In order to cash in some favors to get the weekend off for his daughters birthday, he was spending a lot more time at the hospital, covering for those who covered for him. This week was going to be a little tough to get our schedules in sync enough to go out.

Tonight was beer at Murphy's with my brother. He had sent me a text yesterday to let me know that Rosalie was going to be there as well since her schedule was open. He wanted to know if Jasper and Alice were going to come as well since they seemed to hit it off at the party. I had been over at Alice and Jasper's when he texted and my ears were still ringing from her squeal of delight when I asked her about it. She immediately made plans to go shopping since she thought I needed a brand new outfit.

"But it's just Murphy's, Alice!" I complained.

"Yeah, but it's your first date with Edward as his girlfriend. You have to remind him what a great catch you are."

I rolled my eyes at her comment. "I'm pretty sure he'd like me even if I wasn't all dolled up. He _has_ seen me in my work clothes before."

"Maybe but do you really want to risk it?" I kept my mouth shut, just wanting to get that conversation done and over with. Alice could find an excuse to go shopping without my help. I'd let her shop for me as long as I didn't have to go with her.

That was why at seven o'clock I was staring at the shortest dress I've ever seen, convinced that she forgot something along the way. "Alice!" I hollered. She popped her head out the door to the bathroom with her hair full of curlers. "Part of this dress is missing."

"No it's not," she replied with a look of determination.

"I have shirts longer than this!" I protested.

"You're wearing it!" I could see her starting to waver.

"No way," I said firmly trying to take advantage of her slight hesitation.

"I won't make you go shopping with me for a month," she offered.

I couldn't stand the pleading look in her eyes as she said that. "Deal."

I went back to dressing as Alice finished her hair. She had already done my make-up and hair; only curling the ends a bit and adding darker eyeshadow and eyeliner. I really liked the way she did my eyeliner since she continued the line out past my eyelashes and it made my eyes pop. The knock on the door startled me as I was slipping on the killer heels that Alice insisted I wear. I'd only recently gotten used to walking in them. Jasper stuck his hand around the door and pointed at his watch reminding me of the time. "Alice! You ready to go? We need to leave soon."

"Yeah, give me a second. I'm using your perfume," she said.

"Yeah, yeah, just buy me a bottle for Christmas since you use it almost more than me," I complained at her jokingly.

"Pshaw, whatever," she said as she walked out of my bathroom, giving her hair one final fluff. "I knew that dress would be killer on you. I'm sure Edward will swallow his tongue." She clapped gleefully in anticipation, bouncing a bit on her toes.

"Come on, brat, let's get a move on." We walked arm in arm out to the living room where Jasper and Edward were waiting patiently. Jasper had a game on the TV and they were watching avidly. Edward had only arrived five minutes prior and had quickly joined Jasper on the couch. Jasper was a pro at waiting for Alice and I to finish getting ready, he knew my house almost as well as his own. At our approach , Jasper turned off the TV and both of them got to their feet. Edward paused momentarily when he got a good look at me. His eyes went wide as they traipsed over every inch of my body, lingering a bit on my legs and cleavage, which was currently on display.

"Is this alright?" I asked cautiously as I bit my lip momentarily. I barely refrained from saying 'ta da' as I lifted my arms from my sides, palms up. "I know it's a little much to be wearing to Murphy's, but Alice insis--" my words were cut off as Edward's finger came to a rest on my lips.

"You look exquisite," he said reverently as he leaned down to quickly kiss me just to the left of my lips, not wanting to muss my make-up. He had more of a fear of Alice's reaction than me. I would have made out with him on the spot, my make-up be damned, but he pulled back too quickly for me to be able to catch his lips with mine.

"Emmett just texted." Jasper interrupted, dropping his phone back in his jean pocket. "They're parked and walking to Murphy's. We need to get going." I watched as Jasper tried to move Alice towards the door. I had given up on trying to get Alice to do something outside of her own schedule; it was like herding kittens.

She finally stopped primping and we walked out the door and headed toward the bar. I held tightly to Edward's hand on the short walk, certain that I would trip and fall on the way. We made it to Murphy's quickly and were greeted enthusiastically by Emmet and Rosalie who had commandeered a table in the corner. They both stood and hugged us all. When it came time for Emmett to hug me, he held me out in front of him and raised an eyebrow. "Where's the other half of your dress?"

I immediately burst into laughter and pointed to Alice, which was all I could do with how hard I was laughing.

"What?" Alice asked belligerently. "It looks great on her."

"It's the size of a postage stamp." Emmett protested; I only laughed harder.

"May I remind you that your fiancee is wearing even less?" Alice commented.

"Yeah, but this is Baby Girl. She's not allowed to wear clothes like that." I immediately stopped laughing at Emmett's reply.

"Emmers, I'm a grown woman," I chastised him. "This overprotective stuff, while nice to know you care a lot, is not going to fly."

Emmett just nodded glumly.

"Now tell me how beautiful I look." I elbowed him lightly in the ribs, earning a grin from him.

"You do look beautiful tonight. I'm just scared I'm going to have to beat the jack asses off with a stick."

"No worries, that's what Edward's here for." I smirked at Emmett while I grabbed Edward's hand and squeezed lightly. He rewarded me with that crooked grin at me that never failed to get my panties wet. Edward and Jasper went up to the bar to get Alice and my drinks. They came back with Framboise for Alice, a Snakebite for me and Black and Tans for themselves. We chatted about work for a bit. Rosalie and Alice started speaking about her wedding plans. I got lost in my own thoughts as Edward's thumb rubbed along the top edge of my dress, barely skimming along my skin.

We had all finished our first round and Emmett was about to go get our second when Alice's question made the both of us pause. "What's the story with James? I've never heard the full story, just bits and pieces."

"I'm going to need copious amounts of alcohol in order to get through that story." I replied guardedly with a nervous chuckle. Emmett's and my eyes locked for a moment, his expression questioning my ability to do this. I nodded my head almost imperceptibly and his face relaxed slightly. "How 'bout we go back to my house and get comfortable? Jasper, you want to walk over to Ripples and pick up some more tequila? I think I'm going to need some of your margaritas."

"Sure, I'll pick up some more beer while I'm there. You're almost out." We all got up and made our way out of Murphy's. The guys walked us the few blocks down to my house before heading over to the liquor store.

On my way toward the backyard, I started collecting blankets and extra pillows that we might need to get comfortable. I handed them to Rosalie to take outside while Alice and I grabbed a metal bucket that we used to hold drinks at BBQ's and such. We filled it with the remaining beers and some bottles of water. Alice and I carried it out to the backyard and set it between the two large round chairs that faced the hammock. We rearranged the furniture a bit so that they were all centered around the outdoor fireplace that was ready to be fired up. The fire was quickly lit as I snuggled into the large chair with the quilt that Rosalie had placed in it. Alice settled into the hammock and Rose made a nest out of the blankets in the chair next to me. I pulled out the emergency pack of cigarettes I had grabbed on the way through the house, lit one and let the sweet smell dissipate into the night air.

"Cloves?" Rosalie asked.

"She only smokes them when she's really stressed," Alice said. The pack and the lighter flew over to Alice when I tossed them to her, knowing she would eventually get around to bumming one off of me. I was surprised when Alice handed them back via Rosalie, and Rosalie took one and lit up as well.

"I can never resist a clove," she said as she smiled sheepishly.

"That's what they're there for," I said as I placed them on the table between the two of us.

The three of us sat in silence for a bit, just listening to the fire crackle. I heard the blender turn on from inside the kitchen as Emmett came outside with a bottle of wine and a glass for Rosalie. I watched as he kissed her gently. The entire evening I watched as he handled Rosalie as if she was made of spun glass. It gave me warm fuzzies to think that he had found someone who cared about him so much. It was as if she was his whole world and he, hers.

Emmett cuddled in next to Rosalie, grabbing a beer on the way. He was searching over the different things on the table when he turned to me and asked, "bottle opener?"

I held my open hand out to him and took the beer when he handed it to me, grabbed the bic and popped the top off with it. He raised his eyebrows at this simple trick so I answered the unasked question by saying, "random thing I learned in college."

He just shook his head as I heard the blender stop. My attention was drawn to the back door as it yet again opened to Edward stepping through with two glasses of margaritas. He handed one to Alice and then came over to join me. I flipped the quilt back as he joined me under the blankets.

Jasper walked out the door with the pitcher of the leftover margaritas and a six pack of beers. He dropped the beers in the cooler and the pitcher on the table between the chairs. I looked questioningly at Jasper when he dug a pack of cloves out of his back pocket and added it to the pack that was already on the table. "I figured if you needed margaritas, you'd be needing cloves. Last time you were this stressed, was when we found out Brii was going back to her mother and you and Alice smoked half the pack then."

We all sat in without talking for a bit, listening to the ocean crash to shore, the fire crackle in the fireplace, and the random car that drove by. I watched the smoke lazily dispersed into the night sky as I sipped on the margarita. Alice couldn't stand the silence any longer and interrupted it with a, "so?"

"So, I was born...." I started.

"Not that far back!" Alice interrupted.

I smiled at Alice as I continued, "Mom and Dad died the summer I turned five. Emmett, you were, what, nine?" Emmett nodded and I continued. " We were sent to Forks, Washington, to live with an elderly aunt. Two months didn't even go by when she kicked the bucket and we were put back into the foster care system."

I took a deep breath as I tried to keep myself calm. Emmett picked up the story at my hesitation. "James was the meanest sonofabitch I've ever encountered. He expected Baby Girl and me to cook and clean. And when it wasn't done to his standards, he'd beat us for it. I did my best to keep him from hurting Baby Girl, but I wasn't always successful." He looked down at the ground, hiding his face from me.

I went over to him, grabbed his face in between my hands, and forced him to look up at me. Seeing the tears formed in his eyes caused mine to spill over and pour down my face.

"You did the best you could. Don't blame yourself for not being able to stop him from hurting me. It shouldn't have been up to a nine year old kid to keep an adult from hurting either one of us." He pulled me into his arms as we both let go of the past hurts and regrets. I was startled when Emmett got up with me still in his arms. Emmett still held me as he walked up to Edward.

"I'm only gonna say this once, take care of Baby Girl. If you don't, I know where I can hide your body." The two of them exchanged a solemn look as Emmett placed me in Edward's lap carefully.

"Good to know I have your permission, jack ass!" I said sarcastically. Everyone but Emmett and Edward chuckled at this. Alice motioned for another cigarette and I tossed her the pack. It made it's way around the circle, with Rosalie grabbing another one as well. "Anyways, so we had a horrible life with James. After being there for a year, a social worker made a random visit to the house, interrupting James in the middle of beating us. I was certain that if they hadn't shown up, both Emmett and I would be dead now. They separated us because of our age difference, and I was adopted by Charlie and Renee.

"Charlie was the Sheriff in Forks and Renee was a housewife. Renee was a lot like mom." I watched as Emmett's dimpled grin spread across his face. He kissed Rosalie on the temple and pulled her tightly into his arms as I continued. "She was very free-spirited and stifled by small town life. She had threatened to leave him if they didn't get out of Forks.

"A year after I was adopted by them, we moved to Southern California, where Emmett and I were originally from. That's where I met Alice." I glanced at her and she smiled in remembrance of our first meeting. "I had stopped talking out of fear of James while under his care. Alice didn't care if I didn't talk, she was more than happy to talk for the both of us. I had been in therapy for a couple of years but still only spoke rarely and not more than a whisper when James was released from prison. I was twelve."

I took a deep breath, looked up into the sky and blinked fast, trying to get the tears forming in my eyes to go back where they came from. Edward pulled me into his arms a bit tighter, rubbing soothing circles on my back. "He came in through the window in the middle of the night." I paused again trying to keep my breaths from becoming the rough gasps of a full panic attack. "I woke up to him above me, his rancid breath hot on my face, with his hand covering my mouth. He told me that if I made a sound, he would kill Charlie and Renee while they slept. All I knew was that I couldn't be taken by him again." The tears I was trying to keep at bay slipped silently down my cheeks.

"I bit his hand as hard as I could and kicked him in his groin." I concentrated on the burning ember on the end of Rosalie's cigarette, spacing out a bit, trying to not relive the memories as I told the story. I lit another cigarette and felt the burn in my lungs as I sucked the too-hot air down my throat. "He jumped off of me momentarily and I took the chance to scramble out from under him. I screamed out Charlie's name as I started running towards their room. Charlie opened the door and I was never so happy to see him in my life. I saw his service revolver in his hand as I ran around him and into their bedroom. Two gunshots rang out as I climbed into the bed with Renee, huddling in next to her. Charlie came back into the room and gathered me into his arms as he told Renee to call his Sergent. As soon as she got through, he took the phone and told him what happened.

"Twenty minutes later the house was swarming with cops. Charlie was arrested pending further investigation. They released him two hours later after they discovered what James had in store for me had he been successful in taking me. He had a torture chamber of sorts set up in the basement of the house he was renting. They found a couple of bodies buried out in the backyard that looked an awful lot like me." Emmett hissed in anger as Edward held me even tighter. I released all the rest of the pent up tension, glad to be done telling this story.

"I can't believe you've been through all that and are still normal," Rosalie commented.

"That is due to thousands of dollars of good counseling and Alice. She keeps me sane." I lit one last cigarette for the night, noticing that we had smoked the rest of the pack

"Dankeschön, Bella." Alice said as I threw the pack of cloves at Alice, knowing she would want another.

"Bitteschön, Alice." I replied.

"You know, we should speak Russian more often," she said in all seriousness.

"It's German, Alice," I said as everyone else chuckled, dispersing the lingering sadness that was effecting everyone.

"Whateves, I'm just glad you're alive," Alice said with a rueful grin.

"So am I, Alice. So am I," I said as Edward pulled me tightly to him and kissed my temple.

**

* * *

Thanks to Coldplaywhore for pimping out my story. If you haven't read any of her stuff yet, I recommend it. She's got lots of stories, a lot of which are complete.**

**Rec's:**

**Boys Wanna Be Her by dankegeorge (Whip It! inspired Twilight fanfic my beta got me addicted to)**

**Dartmouth Diaries by Clurrabella which is a great Jasper/Bella fic (will gladly take any rec's for any good J/B fics, I'm currently addicted to them...)**

**bmango (fellow D.I.L.F. contestant) is continuing her fic Emmett's new Pussy. The latest chapter blew me away, so go and show her some love so she updates faster!!! :D**

**Anybody got any good rec's for me? I read A LOT!!!! :D**

**If anybody has wandered over here due to someone else rec'ing it can you please let me know? I'd like to be able to thank them... :D**

**I don't recommend removing beer bottle caps with any lighter other than a Bic. Others have broken off in my hands.**

**What languages do you know?**


	7. Floods and Miracles

**A/N: Thanks to my beta Pire... She's the reason I sound halfway intelligent and stay sane...**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyers. I don't own...**

**I do however own one ticket to New Moon on Saturday, October 21, at 9:45 AM... **

**Happy Reading!**

**

* * *

Exes and Ohs **

Chapter Seven

Floods and Miracles

BPOV

Saturday morning dawned and I woke for a heavy slumber, trying to understand why it sounded like rain in my house. There was no prediction for rain when I checked the weather channel right before bed last night; in fact, it was supposed to be in the hundreds in the inland areas. I dragged myself out of bed and grabbed the robe hanging off the door knob to my closet. I followed the sounds of the water falling out into the hallway and stepped into two inches of standing water. _Ugh. This was not going to be good..._

I carefully walked over the water-soaked carpet and made my way downstairs. I quickly found the source of the sound of the 'rain' and found water dripping out of one of the vents in the ceiling of the living room. There were a few inches of standing water in the downstairs, more than there was upstairs. I let out a frustrated groan at whatever it was that caused this catastrophe as I dropped my head into my hands utterly defeated. I went to sit on my couch, but immediately shot back up when water soaked into the seat of my favorite pair of pajamas. They were already soaked up to the ankle and this just made the situation worse.

I grabbed my cell and called Edward. When it went to voicemail, it occurred to me that he was on shift and wouldn't be able to take my call. I left him a quick message and then called Jasper.

"Mornin'," he drawled in that Southern twang.

"It's raining in my house! Help!" I said desperately, fisting my hair with my free hand.

"No problem, sugar. I'll be over in a minute." His steady voice reassured me almost as much as Edward's would have.

I took a moment to breathe and stop the panic that was trying to claw it's way from my gut into a full panic attack. Water. In. My. House. _Hmmm... water has to be turned off somehow. Now where was the damn water main? _

I went outside and found the shut off valve for the water main and felt a little bit better. I walked out to the front door to wait for Jasper to get here. I didn't wait long before I spotted his messy blonde hair as he turned the corner onto my block. He pulled me into a hug as the tears that I hadn't acknowledged tried to make their way out from underneath my lashes.

"It's going to be alright, Bella," Jasper whispered. We broke from our embrace as he tugged me into my flooded house. "Did you turn the water off at least?"

"Yeah, I found the main and turned it off," I replied as we started up the waterlogged stairs. There were two bedrooms upstairs, the master with an attached bathroom, and the guest bedroom which had been set up for Bridgette whenever she wanted to spend the night. There was a small unattached bathroom near the guest bedroom, which is where we found the source of the problem. The tank on the back of the toilet had broken and it had been pumping water out for quite a while, I assume.

"You know where the number is for your homeowner's insurance?" Jasper asked as he took in the scene in the upper bathroom.

"I didn't even think about it. They'll probably take care of this right?" I said with hope for the first time since I woke up and heard the rain in my house. I headed back downstairs to my office where that info would have been filled away.

"Yeah, most likely. I'll get started on soaking up the water up here," Jasper said as I stepped on the first stair down.

I was rifling through my paperwork when my cell phone rang; I had to slosh my way upstairs to answer it in time.

"Hello?" I said without looking at the caller id.

"Bella, you called?" Edward said with worry in his voice. The tension that was still resting in the pit of my stomach like knots unwound at the sound of his velvety voice.

"I'm just having a _minor _crisis at the moment." I said sarcastically. "The upstairs toilet broke in the middle of the night and flooded my house." The stress I was feeling was evident in my voice.

"Oh, baby, I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked, concern lacing his voice.

"You're at work, right?"

"Um-hmm. I'm on till noon."

"I need people to help me clean up right now," I said as I started playing with the tie on my robe. "I'm going to call my homeowner's insurance and let them know what happened. Jasper's here now and has started on clean up. Would you mind coming over after work and helping out? I'll probably end up buying pizzas and stuff for lunch."

"Yeah, I can be there around one. I'm going to bring Lizzie, since I figured she'll play with Bridgette in the backyard. Is that okay?" His voice seemed slightly worried and I was quick to assure him.

"Yes, bring her. I'll see you then." We said our goodbyes and I went back downstairs to find the info I was looking for when the phone rang.

The first phone number that I called said that they were closed but if there was an emergency, to call a separate phone line. I called that and had to wait on hold for a half an hour before I got through to someone. Alice and Bridgette had wandered in during that time. A cup of coffee and a kiss on the cheek were given to me as Alice came through. The sounds of banging around in the kitchen made me curious but not curious enough to wander out of where I had holed myself up in the office. Ten minutes later I was presented with a plate of scrambled eggs, one of the only things Alice was able to do successfully in the kitchen. The cheesy music while I was on hold was the accompaniment to my breakfast as I quickly ate them with a mumbled thanks to Alice. She pointed upstairs to tell me she was going to go help Jasper.

I had just finished the eggs when I was connected to a representative and spoke with them about what had happened. She said that they really couldn't do anything for me today, but she started the paperwork for me and said that they would send someone out on Monday to look at the damage. My best bet was to just clean up the mess for now. I was assured that from what we discussed of the situation, that it was covered under my insurance policy. I thanked her for her help and hung up the phone.

I grabbed my cell phone as I headed towards the stairs to see how far Jasper and Alice had gotten on cleaning up the mess. Before I made it to the first step, I was taken by surprise when the front door was thrown open and Emmett and Rosalie stood there.

"Baby Girl! I heard you had a flood," Emmett said as he grinned at me. I couldn't stop myself from giggling when I saw that he had on the most ridiculous looking galoshes that I have ever seen in my life. They were lime green with yellow rubber duckies printed on them. I was completely shocked that he could find them in a size large enough for his feet. When I managed to get my giggles under control, Emmett declared, "We're here to help!"

"I'm glad, I'll take all the help I can get, but how did you know?" I asked as Rosalie and I exchanged a hug. She just rolled her eyes at Emmett's antics.

"Edward called," I watched as a frown came over his face, "I was kind of surprised that you didn't call me."

I pulled my brother into my arms and explained, "I just got off the phone with the homeowner's insurance. You were going to be my next call."

The grin that blossomed on his face made me grin in response. "Well, then let's get to it!"

We made our way up to where Alice and Jasper had made a bit of headway in getting the water mopped up. I quickly changed out of my pajamas and Emmett, Rosalie, and I joined Alice and Jasper as they continued cleaning up all the water that had seeped into the carpets in the upstairs hallway and the guest bedroom. It hadn't made it's way into my room, which I was grateful for.

We had finished mopping up upstairs when Edward and Lizzie arrived. Lizzie took off immediately for the backyard to play with Bridgette after pausing momentarily to give me a hug. Edward pulled me into a hug and I let him hold me for a minute, just breathing in his scent. After a bit he pulled back so that he could look into my eyes, still keeping me in his arms.

"You alright?" he asked with concern etched into his face.

"Yeah, I'll be okay." I said as I realized that with him here, I truly was alright. Ever since Tuesday night, when I told everyone the story of James, his care and concern for me had been even more evident than before. Edward never asked questions of what happened and his quiet acceptance of what happened was a comfort to me. He was constantly finding ways to touch me as if reassuring himself that I was there. I reveled in his touch for just a minute longer.

"Did you get a hold of your homeowner's insurance?" I quickly filled him in on what all had gone down with the phone call.

"I have Monday off. Do you want me to come over and meet with the rep so that you don't have to take the time off?" he asked as he rubbed my arms lightly.

"No, I want to be there to speak with them but I would love it if you were here with me." I smiled at him and his crooked grin came out.

"K, I'll be there," he said as his eyes danced. "Do you know what time?"

"Early morning. I'm about ready to order pizzas, what kind do Emmett, Rosalie, Lizzie and you like?"

"We're all good with Cheese or Pepperoni."

"Alright I'll call now, do you want to walk down to the liquor store and pick up some more beer for me?"

"Sure. Guinness sound good?"

"Yup!" I replied as I grabbed the phone and called the order in for the pizzas.

The eight of us ate the pizza and then got back to work. Well, the adults went back to work; the girls went back to playing. They had set up a fort in the back yard using an old sleeping bag and the lawn furniture. They were playing with the few toys I had for when Bridgette came over and some that Lizzie brought with her. They were playing together noisily, which was good because we never had to wonder where they were. We could keep track of them by their giggles.

The monotony of cleaning up all the water was broken by Emmett and his antics. I think Rosalie, Alice, and my favorite part was when Emmett started slapping Jasper and Edward with the wet towels we had been using to soak up the water and then convinced them to do an impromptu wet t-shirt contest. Us girls were supposed to be the judges, but since we were all partial to our own men, the guys got Lizzie and Bridgette to judge. Emmett ended up winning because of all the 'pretty colors' that were peeking out from his shirt, according to the two of them. We were busting up laughing at the way Emmett preened over the two girls and then scooped them up screaming and got them just as wet as he currently was.

It was about four in the afternoon when we got as much as the water soaked up as we could. We ended up running up to the hardware store and renting some heavy duty fans to try and keep the air circulating and dry the house out faster. All the windows had been opened and the hot summer heat had been starting to dry it out. The humidity of living near the beach didn't help though. We let the fans do their thing while we went out to dinner at Domenico's, an Italian restaurant up on 2nd Street.

~*~

Monday morning dawned bright and early. On Sunday, we had all gone to Chuck's for breakfast, taking up two tables outside on the sidewalk. Emmett had been there a couple of times and was determined to try the Weasel this time. When Emmett and Rosalie found out about our Sunday breakfast tradition, they decided that they would join us whenever their schedule allowed.

We had all walked back to Alice and Jasper's house after and the guys watched whatever baseball game was on the television. The girls all went into Alice's sewing room, since that was where Alice had accumulated all the information that she had gathered for Rosalie's wedding. Rosalie was so impressed with Alice's attention to detail, she suggested that she go into wedding planning. Alice commented that she did that for a while, but didn't find it as rewarding as she thought she would.

Edward's shift didn't start until later in the afternoon, but would be a long one, getting off just before coming over to my house to wait for the insurance representative. I called Esme and told her about what was going on and that I would try to be in by lunchtime. She was understanding as usual and said that she would forward all the field calls that I would normally take to Mike. I was sure he'd be _so_ thrilled at not being able to push any of the actual work onto me for once.

Edward showed up around 8:30, and I was hoping that the rep would be there soon after that. We were sadly disappointed when the guy didn't show up till about 10:30, cutting it close into the time when I needed to get going to work. He was in a constant fight with gravity as he kept hitching his pants up. His sparse hair was being constantly harassed with the way he kept flopping his greasy hat back and forth on his head. We shook hands quickly making an introduction. He told us his name was John as he handed me a business card with greasy fingerprints on it. He explained that he would only be dealing with the structural damage to the house and not any personal items that might have been damaged.

John made a quick survey of the damage inside the house, taking extra time in the upstairs bathroom doing who knows what. I couldn't stop my curiosity as I heard a banging coming from the upstairs. Edward and I, who had been waiting in the kitchen, one of the few rooms not damaged by my 'flood', bolted up the stairs when we heard the noise. It however stopped as soon as our pounding footsteps on the stairs were heard.

"Yeah," _hitch_, "so," _flop_, "we'll cover the damage but you'll have to be out of the house for the duration of the construction. We're going to have to rip out the walls, carpets, and some of the air ducts and replace it all. We'll repaint the walls that have water damage, and replace your crown molding as well. If there's any furniture that is damaged, you need to take pictures and send it to your agent. Any questions?"

"Yeah, how long are you expecting me to be out of my house?" I asked, hoping it would only be a week or two.

"Well," _hitch_, "on a job like this it can take anywhere between a month to two months." My heart dropped to my toes when I heard this. _A month? I have to be out of my house for a month?_

"One suggestion I might make?" John said as I nodded my head slowly; Edward's arm tightened around my shoulders. "Hardwood floors are cheaper than replacing carpets. You might look into that as an option instead of replacing with carpet. An other thing you might think about is if you want any of the walls a different color. Otherwise," _flop_, "they'll just match it to what it is now.

"That's okay, I wasn't looking to redecorate." I just wanted to finish this meeting and deal with the aftermath.

"Now," _hitch_, "if you have any more questions, you have my card. The sooner you leave the sooner you can come back. We'd like to start construction tomorrow if we can."

I could barely nod and Edward stepped in for me replying, "she'll give you a call by the end of the day."

I shook his hand in a daze, then watched as he got in his truck and drove away; empty hamburger wrappers flew out the bed of the truck as he took off. I barely registered that Edward was rubbing the tension out of my shoulders as I spaced off. Where was I going to go?

"You alright?" he quietly interrupted my musings.

"Yeah," I replied half-heartedly. Edward pulled me into his arms, and I burst into tears.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" he asked as he tipped my chin up so that he could look me in the eye.

"My h-house fl-flooded, and I-I have to move ou-out and d-don't know where I'm g-going to go." I said as I continued to cry.

"Breathe, Bella, it's going to be okay." Edward tried to wipe the tears that were freely flowing down my cheeks. They had been threatening since I first heard the 'rain' in my house Saturday morning, I had just been keeping them at bay until now.

"I can't stay at A-Alice's house, her g-guest room is now Br-Bridgette's room." My tears, which had started to abate a bit, came back with the realization that I might have to max my credit cards out to pay for a hotel stay. "How a-about Emmett's house?"

"Emmett's and Rosalie's house is too small, and I know he has a tendency to walk around naked, so that's out." Edward suggested.

"I don't want to move all the way out to Victorville with my dad." My tears started to dry up as I moved on to solving the problem.

"You going to take off the six to eight weeks from work? How are you going to commute?"

"K, so I guess that's out as well." I played with the hem of my shirt as I racked my brain for somewhere to stay.

"Well... that leaves only one place." he said with a grin.

"Where?" _What was I missing?_

"My house," he wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively.

"No." I said as I shook my head. _Not happening._

"Come on, I've got plenty of room. That house is gigantic with just me and Lizzie in it." he said cajolingly.

"I'm not going to move in with you, even if it is temporary." I put my hands on my hips, but Edward just pulled me into his arms, derailing my attempts to stand firm.

"I could put you in the other wing of the house, I would barely even know you're there."

"No, I don't want to impose. I'd feel like I was invading your house." I could feel my cheeks heat with the idea of becoming a burden to Edward.

"Not at all." he reassured me as he rubbed circles on my back, "and besides, you'll be paying me back for it."

"How?" I asked curiously. I wiped at the trails of my tears with the backs of my hands, making sure to get the last of the remnants of mascara that had bled with my crying.

"Free babysitting!" he exclaimed excitedly. I narrowed my eyes at him and smacked him in the arm playfully, "Ow!" he said half-heartedly as he rubbed his biceps.

"Fine, at least your mom will get a break from babysitting at night." I brightened at the thought of getting to spend more time with both Lizzie and Elizabeth. Elizabeth and I had struck up a conversation regarding volunteer work with regards to social services during the birthday party last week and was looking forward to chatting with her again about the various charity works she participates in.

"I was just kidding about the babysitting, but if you want to, I'm sure my mom would love the break. You sure?" a skeptical look came over his face.

"Yeah, I love hanging out with Lizzie." I replied as the look of disbelief disappeared and was replaced with happiness.

"Good. Do you want me to come meet you back here after you get off work and we'll pack up your stuff?" I nodded slowly realizing what the implications would be of moving in with Edward, albeit temporarily. If I thought he dazzled me now, how was I going to handle seeing him every day? Maybe even, waking up with him?

**

* * *

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! I love each and everyone. You keep me writing!**

**Thanks to the people who added me to their Communities. I had three more add my story this last week. You're all awesome!**

**Rec's: **

**Mine by ****Lethologica86. **

**Human Nature by MadamePlume**

**Serendipity by circe290**

**What major/minor disaster have you been through?**


	8. Laughter and Tears

**A/N: Thanks as always to my beta Pire, who has the same obsession for Twilight and fanfiction that I do. And also the willingness to see New Moon over and over again!!!!**

**Your reviews never fail to brighten my day!**

**BamaBabe, this will be a two tissue chapter. I'm not disclosing what panty rating it gets. You'll have to read and decide yourself!!!**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs **

Chapter 8

Laughter and Tears

BPOV

It had been three weeks since I moved in with Edward and Lizzie, and I was seriously contemplating kidnapping Edward, dropping Lizzie off at Alice's and locking us in a hotel for three days straight. I had never been so frustrated before, with the interruptions and the bad timing. Edward really did have to put me in the guest room since Lizzie had been having nightmares and wandered into his bed in the middle of the night. He didn't feel it would be right to have her find me in his bed, which I totally agreed with.

The first Saturday, we thought we were in the clear, since we purposely kept Lizzie up late so that we could get a little lovin' in in the morning. I was in a pair of his boxers and one of his button ups since I had been pilfering his clothes for pjs, sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Edward had a rare Saturday morning off, but would be heading in in the afternoon, so we were taking advantage of the quiet. The last button of my shirt had just been unbuttoned as we were making out when I heard a loud cough. Not having heard the doorbell, or Alice's knock, we were both taken by surprise when we looked over and saw her with a large tote slung over one arm, one hand over Bridgette's eyes, and a stern look on her face. I quickly buttoned up and jumped off the counter before Alice could start tapping her toe impatiently.

"Let me just go wake up Lizzie," Edward said trying to make an escape. _Coward_.

"Alice, why are you here so early?" I asked.

"We're baking today, Bella, or did you forget?" Alice let her hand go off of Bridgette and she quickly came up to me and gave me a hug. I kissed her on the top of her head and held onto her for a minute.

"Bella, she's not going to save you from me, so let her go." Bridgette giggled at what Alice said.

"You're way early though Alice." I complained. "We usually don't start baking 'till ten and it's only eight thirty. What gives?"

"I forgot that it was a Saturday, so there wouldn't be any traffic. Besides, you're up already so what does it matter?" _Cockblocking best friend._ I pulled her into a hug, letting go of my exasperation with her.

"Fine, whatever, can you at least call before you come over next time?"

"Sure, why don't you get dressed and I'll start the oven?"

"No, you wait until I get back down here to touch the oven, I don't want you breaking it. You already did that with your mother's remember?"

"Whateves, I'm just trying to help out," she pouted as I walked out the door.

I went upstairs to my 'room' and got dressed quickly, pulling on a pair of comfy jeans and putting my hair up in a ponytail. On my way back downstairs, I knocked on the door to Lizzie's room. When she said a quiet come in, I opened the door and sat on her bed. She was already dressed and ready to go, but still half asleep. I watched as she grabbed a ponytail holder from her porcelain turtle that held all sorts of ribbons and bows. She sat in front of me and handed the holder and a comb back to me in silent request. Her hair was silky in my hands as I pulled it all up and off her neck into a high ponytail.

"Did your dad tell you what we are going to be doing today?" I asked.

"No," she answered with a yawn.

"Alice and Bridgette are here to bake with us." She caught me by surprise when she turned and tackled me to her bed.

"Really?" she asked from her perch on top of me. The excitement on her face was contagious and I couldn't stop myself from grinning back at her.

"Yup, we normally bake every Saturday, but we've been a little off schedule. Alice thought we should bake at your house since I'm not at mine." Lizzie jumped off me, grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door.

"Come on, Bella. I want to make cookies!" I followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. That day had been interesting to say the least. We started making chocolate chip cookies since that was what Lizzie and Bridgette decided we needed to make. Everything was going just fine until Edward and Alice both grabbed for the flour bag, ripping it in the process. They both stared at each other in shock for a moment as the flour slowly drifted down, getting them both lightly coated in it. Edward was the first to react, grabbing a handful and throwing it at Alice's brand new designer top.

"You are _so_ dead!" Alice screeched as she grabbed a fistful of flour.

"You have to catch me first!" Edward quickly darted around the kitchen when Alice threw the first handful, which inadvertently hit me as he ducked around behind me.

Both girls, who had been quietly watching the interraction between the Alice and Edward, gasped when the flour hit me on the face. Alice's face was in complete shock as I slowly stalked towards the pile of flour and took my own handful.

"Bella, sweetie, you know you really don't want to do that, I didn't really mean to hit you, I was aiming at Edward." The pleading look in her eyes was comical. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Edward holding his sides trying to keep from laughing out loud. I quickly turned to him and threw the handful at him, hitting him square in the chest. Lizzie and Bridgette's laughter rang out as Edward turned towards them.

"You think that's funny do you?" he asked them with a mischevious glint in his eyes.

"No, Daddy, don't!" Lizzie cried out as Edward advanced on the two of them, grabbing more flour on the way. Both of them jumped off of the stool they had been sharing and tried to run out of Edward's way. Bridgette quickly ran behind Alice and Lizzie hid behind me saying, "Bella, help, Daddy's gonna get me!"

I swiped at another handful of flour and threw it at Edward, trying to distract him from the smaller prey. The flour flew for quite a few minutes, with both of the girls giggling and screaming as we all dodged and threw flour.

When the flour settled, the five of us were covered in flour as well as the kitchen. I was amazed that Lizzie and Bridgette had the least amount of flour decorating them, but since they were the smallest and thus the hardest to hit, it made sense. The two of them had also constantly taken refuge behind Alice and I, letting us take the hits meant for them. Alice had volunteered Edward and her to clean up the kitchen afterwards if I would get the girls cleaned up. I easily took that deal since cleaning the girls would be a cinch in comparison to cleaning the kitchen. They had gotten flour _everywhere._

Edward stopped me on the way up to the bathroom as the girls ran ahead. He kissed the tip of my nose, and said, "I can't remember the last time I heard Lizzie laughing so much, thank you."

I quickly got the girls into the bath and then into clean clothes, taking the opportunity to change into a pair of clean clothes as well, and brush out the flour in my hair. The three of us walked downstairs to see the last of the flour being poured into the trashcan from the dustpan and I couldn't stop myself from laughing at Alice and Edward. They had wiped the flour off their faces, but the flour clung to their hair, making it look as if they had frost along the tips. The two of them looked at each other and busted out laughing as well.

"I know they won't quite fit, but at least they're clean," I told Alice as I handed her the Juicy Couture sweat pants and jacket that she had bought me for Christmas last year. She took the opportunity to run upstairs and change.

Edward loomed over me and I caught my breath as he kissed the corner of my mouth. "You had a bit of flour there," he said with a wink before he sauntered off to find some clean clothes.

We finished the cookies without any other food flying instances and packed half of them up for Alice and Bridgette to take home.

Lizzie had definitely taken a liking to me. We had gotten into a routine, with Elizabeth staying to chat for a while when I got there, while Lizzie and I got started on making dinner. She loved to help in the kitchen and would make any excuse to help me out. Every Monday after our first baking day at Edward's I made sure to have a plate of cookies or treats for Elizabeth to take home to share with Edward Masen, Sr.

The next week it had been the loveliness of my period that interrupted our next opportunity for some shmexing, but Edward was a trooper. He had a rare night off and just held me through the night as I tried to ignore my uterus trying to claw its way out of my body. It was awkward when I first confessed why we couldn't do anything on a night that Elizabeth had Lizzie spend the night at their house, but he quickly realized what was going on from my mumbling. He immediately grabbed me a heating pad and two ibuprofens and hustled me into his bed where we stayed up watching late night and tried to ignore my misery. All week he was constantly making sure that I was feeling okay and even after it was done he still doted on me. I could definitely get used to this kind of treatment. The week after that I hardly saw Edward, as he took on extra shifts to help out a fellow doctor who was away on vacation.

The third Sunday after I had moved into Edward's, I had the most wonderful dream. I was in the middle of a field of flowers, naked as could be but completely comfortable with it. The heat from the sun was enticing over my breasts and stomach, warming me completely. I felt a heat run down my side as I arched my back into the suns gentle caresses. The suns rays tingled along my collarbone, trailing down towards my stomach and lapping around my bellybutton. My right nipple was enveloped in a wet heat and I couldn't keep from sighing at the exquisite feeling. The sun's tongue abraided my nipple as it's teeth lightly grazed the pebbled peak. _ Wait... the sun doesn't have teeth._

I cracked my eyes open and saw the most glorious head of hair just below me and couldn't keep myself from winding my fingers through the strands. I arched into his mouth and hissed, "Edward."

He released my nipple with a pop and looked up at me, his stunning green eyes dazzling me, "Yes, my Bella?" he asked as he nudged my legs apart with his knee, bringing his thigh up between mine.

"Where's," he continued to play with my other nipple with his long fingers, rolling it and keeping me from coherent thought. "Umm... that feels so..."

"Where's what, love?" he asked as he pulled himself up and started nibbling on my neck just below my ear. My hands tightened in his hair, curling my fingers into the hairs at the back of his head, trying to keep him exactly where he was. I tugged a bit and reveled in the sound of his groan as his erection made itself known along my hip.

"Hmm...oh... where's," the warmth from his leg seeped into my center as the pressure increased. I breathed heavier, panting with the sensations being rung out of me with his hands. He continued to play with my breasts, kneading them and pinching the nipples a bit, as his tongue and teeth continued to work it's magic along the tendons of my neck. "Lizzie?"

"My mom took her to the zoo. We have all morning to play." He whispered into my ear. He made his way towards my mouth, planting butterfly kisses along my jaw as he slowly, torturously made his way to my lips. When he finally got there he made slow and languorous love to my mouth, controlling each and every aspect of our kiss. Before there had been a lot of give and take in our kisses, but this, this was him mastering me with tongue and lips and teeth. I ground myself against his thigh and gripped his perfect ass, urging him to take me with every movement of my body.

We broke from our kiss, staring into each other's eyes for a few moments, hearing each other's labored breathing. He kissed my lips gently one more time before nipping his way down my body, towards the place where I most desired attention, pausing momentarily to nibble around the edge of my nipples. My legs were nudged further apart as he gripped my thighs, as he placed a gentle kiss at the top of my mound. I shivered when his hot breath bathed over my pussy, his thumbs gently grazing along the outside of my lips.

He gently pulled my lips apart as his tongue gently licked me from slit to clit. I cried out as he swirled his tongue around and over my clit. One of his hands slipped underneath me and grabbed my ass as he pushed his face into pussy, flipping my legs over his shoulders. I grabbed his hair once again, trying to to get him to apply more pressure as he lightly teased my clit over and over again. My heels dug into his back and I nearly saw stars when he sucked it into his mouth and nibbled on it a bit.

I couldn't stop my legs from tightening around his head as my hips bucked up into his mouth of their own accord. His long fingers curled inside me, and the combination of his tongue on my clit and the sensations in my pussy caused my orgasm to break over me like a tide quickly coming to shore. For the first time did I ever understand the meaning of seeing fireworks during sex. I opened my eyes as I felt his tip gently nudging along my entrance. His cock slid into my depths slowly, feeling each and every inch of his length as my pussy slowly stretched to accommodate his size.

I couldn't look away from the intensity in his eyes as he continued to thrust into me, pounding faster and faster. I had never before understood the appeal of missionary style sex, but in this instance, with the way he masterfully took me, and the extreme intimacy of looking into each others eyes as he plunged over and over, I would die happy if this was the only position we used for the rest of my life. His hand snaked down between our bodies, rubbing the little bundle of nerves, as he took me from standing at the edge of the cliff to soaring into oblivion.

"_Mine_," he grunted out in his release quickly following mine. We stayed there intwined for long moments before he got up and then pulled me toward the shower. The heat of the shower relaxed the both of us. We stood there just touching and holding each other, reveling in the new level of intimacy that we had just entered. After realizing what time it was, we quickly soaped each other's bodies up and then rinsed off, gently toweling each other off when we stepped out of the shower. It wouldn't do us any good to get Alice pissed off at not being on time to Chuck's.

~*~

The next morning all three of us were barely awake as we walked towards the door to leave. Edward was going to be dropping Lizzie off at his mother's on his way to work and I was headed into work as well. Lizzie had been grumpy due to staying out late with her grandmother and not getting her nap the day before. Edward and I had been up late, taking advantage of the silence of the house, christening every surface that we could. I wouldn't be able to look at the kitchen without blushing for a long time.

The doorbell rang, just as we reached it and Edward and I exchanged curious glances. Edward opened the door and Tanya stood there, dressed in a blood red dress that looked as if it had been painted on and a pair of five inch spike heels which I was sure would leave marks in any surface she managed to walk across. I looked beyond her to see my co-worker Mike lurking behind her. _What the hell?_

"Edward, darling." Tanya said sickeningly sweet. "I see your little mistress is still here. It only makes my case that much easier. I'm serving you your papers. I'm suing you for custody."

"What papers?" Edward asked incredulously as he pulled Lizzie behind him. "You can't be trying to file for custody, it won't work. Bella already cleared me of the abuse inquiry."

"Oh, it can and it will." Tanya's voice hardened as she continued, "You made it only too easy for me by moving this tramp into your home. No one will believe that you weren't already sleeping with her when she took the report. She must have falsified it on your request. You don't stand a chance."

"I've never beaten you or Lizzie in my life!" Edward shouted at her. I looked down at Lizzie and saw the confused expression on her face as she gripped Edward's pants in her little fists.

"It's your word against mine though, darling," she simpered. Mike stepped forward, holding out his identification as a social worker.

"I'm sorry, but we're going to have to take her into custody until this is straightened out," Mike said with a smarmy grin. "Unless, of course, you can think of something to convince me not to." He winked when he said 'convinced'. _Why you sorry son of a_... I couldn't even complete my thought in my head I was so peeved.

"I'm not doing what you're implying, Mike," I sneered at him and tried to keep my hands from wrapping around his scrawny neck. Edward pulled me tighter against him, trying to put me behind him, but I kept him from keeping me out of eyesight of Mike and Lizzie.

"Fine, then. Hope to see you at the office, but I hear that might not be for a while." he smirked. He reached out, grabbed Lizzie's arm and started pulling her towards his beat up jalopy.

"Mommy!!!!" I heard Lizzie cry out as she was being pulled away from Edward and me towards the car. Mike's fist looked a little tight on her arm as Lizzie tried to get away from him. Lizzie nearly broke free, so Mike picked her up and held her squirming body in his arms.

"Oh, baby, you know you'll be coming to me soon. We just have to get this worked out with the courts." Tanya said patronizingly. I had almost forgotten that she was there.

"You're not my Mommy," Lizzie said as she reached for me, trying to get out of Mike's arms. "Bella's my mommy. I want Bella." The tears that I had so carefully kept inside burst out when I heard that small admission from Lizzie's lips. I knew that I had made my way into her heart as thoroughly as she had become a part of mine.

"It's going to be alright, Sugar Pie," I said back to her, trying to calm her down. "You'll be back before you know it."

"Uncle Carlisle is going to take care of this Lizzie-bear. I promise you'll come back to me." My heart broke with the sorrow in Edward's voice as he called after her following Mike towards his car, but keeping enough distance so that Mike wouldn't think of him as a threst.

Mike quickly put Lizzie in the car, straping her into a booster seat that he had in the back. Lizzie was still crying and screaming as he closed the door, shoving her arms out of the way since she was still reaching out to Edward and me. Her little hand was splayed on the glass, and Edward quickly placed his much larger hand on the glass to mirror hers. He mouthed _I love you_ to her as she continued to sob. He backed up a bit when he felt Mike put the car into gear and take off. The dust kicked up and my heart broke at the sight of her looking out the back window as they drove away.

Tanya sauntered towards her own car as she said over her shoulder, "Bye Edward. I'll be seeing you in court."

Edward and I walked back to the house in silence. When we got inside with the door shut behind us, Edward immediately whipped out his phone and I pulled mine out as well. I headed into the kitchen trying to give Edward some privacy as I dialed Esme's number trying to find out exactly what was going on. She picked up on the second ring, as if anticipating my call. "Yes?"

"Esme, it's Bella, what's all this about my findings being turned over? What's going on?"

"Oh, Bella, I know you wouldn't have done any of this at all, but it was brought to the attention of one of my supervisors that you moved into Edward's house. I know that you would never falsify a report, but it doesn't look good. They want to do an investigation into your relationship with Edward and whether it came before or after the report. They want to put you on temporary leave until they get it all straightened out."

"What? Carlisle, this is impossible! FIX THIS!" I heard Edward yell from in the living room, and I quickly went over to the doorway to check on him. He was pacing the floor and pulling at his hair. Somewhere along the way he had tugged his shirt tails from his pants and looked thoroughly disheveled.

"Bella? Did you hear what I said?" I turned back into the kitchen to continue the conversation with Esme.

"Yes, I'm sorry Esme, but Edward's on the phone with his lawyer right now. Mike just came and picked up Lizzie. Do you happen to know where she's going to be placed?"

"Bella, I'm talking about your job, you might get fired if they don't find in your favor." Esme's worry crept into her voice.

"I don't care about my job right now Esme," I said quietly but firmly, "what I care about is whether or not that precious little girl is going to be in a home that she won't come out even more damaged after this ordeal is over. I have no doubt in my mind that Edward and I will be exonerated. Now, where is she going to be placed? Please?" I begged quietly.

"We don't have any openings right now in some of our usual homes but I was thinking that for this I might be able to take her home myself. I was speaking with my superiors and they approved me for temporary custody of Lizzie."

I breathed out a sigh of relief, knowing that Lizzie would be with Esme. "Thank you, Esme, you have no idea how much that means to me."

"I'll keep you informed as much as I can. An old colleague of mine is going to be running the investigation and we already spoke of what it's going to entail. They're going to be going through some of your old case files to see what kind of a history you had. Hopefully this will get done with soon and you'll be back to work in no time."

"Thank you, Esme. I know that with you around, I'll be back in the trenches sooner than I expect. Can you do me a favor, Esme?"

"Sure, anything."

"Can you check Lizzie for bruising when she gets in? Mike grabbed her arm a little roughly and I don't want it being said that Edward was the one who put any marks there."

"Yes, Bella, of course. I'll make sure that it's documented." We said our goodbyes and quickly hung up. I of course did what I always do when I'm stressed, I baked. I was just putting the first batch of cowboy cookies in the oven when Edward walked in. I turned to him and held my arms out which he gladly walked into. He rested his forehead along the junction between my shoulder and my neck, breathing deeply. We stood there for a few minutes, just rocking side to side, as I rubbed his back and tried my hardest to keep him calm.

He looked up at me with unshed tears in his eyes and said, "I can't loose her, Bella. She's my world."

**

* * *

A/N Because I don't want to get a bunch of reviews asking why I didn't have them using contraceptives, they used a condom. I just didn't feel the need to add all that extra stuff in. Just imagine at some point they used it and eventually removed it.**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I loved all the stories of minor household disasters, and some not so minor!**

**PLEASE REVIEW!!! I love to get your feedback on this! It makes me write more.**

**What was the best or worst day of your life?**


	9. Tapas and Fears

**A/N: Thanks as always to my beta Pire. Can we go see New Moon again? Please????**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It really warmed my heart to know that you all hate Tanya just as much as I do! :D I love it when my fictional characters get death threats... Hope this chapter makes it a little better...**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyers. I don't own.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter Nine

Tapas and Fears

EPOV

As soon as Mike left with Lizzie, I immediately got on the phone to Carlisle. I paced around the living room as I waited for the main operator to connect me to his line. The sound of his voice did nothing to soothe me as it normally would. I snarled into the phone, "You said she couldn't take Lizzie away from me!"

"Edward? What are you talking about? What happened?" Carlisle's calming voice came over the line.

"Tanya. The bitch took my daughter. I thought you said that she couldn't take her. She came to the door with Bella's co-worker and he took Lizzie into custody. And now she's suing for custody!"

"What? I looked into it. She had no case against you. It was an easy settlement from your divorce. Let me see what's going on. Do you have the paperwork with you?"

I looked at the small stack of paperwork that I had thrown on the coffee table prior to calling Carlisle. "Yeah, I have it here."

"Good, can you bring that in to me? I can look through them and see what's going on. I'm not guaranteeing anything until I know what it is they have against you, but I don't see any problems."

"Yeah, I'll be there in about an hour. I'm bringing Bella with me."

"Doesn't she have work?"

"She's on temporary leave from work. They're investigating her findings on the accusations brought against me about me abusing Lizzie," I said with a frustrated sigh. I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration of this situation.

"What? How can they do that?"

"Something about her influencing the decision and it being inappropriate since we're dating."

"Edward, please tell me that they don't have anything against you. You didn't date Bella until _after_ she made her report right?" Carlisle's normally steady voice sounded a bit worried.

"No, we didn't start dating until the Friday after the report. Why?"

"It could just look bad on paper. We'll have to have someone else come in and re-investigate the matter just to make sure."

"What? Carlisle, this is impossible! FIX THIS!" I snarled shoving my hands into my hair.

"I know Edward this is a frustrating situation, but the only thing you can do is be calm and wait it out. Losing your cool will just play into her hands. I'll see you in a bit." We said our good-byes and hung up. I quickly called into work and informed them that I was taking the day off due to a family emergency. When I got off the phone I stared out the large windows to the backyard for a minute, not really seeing anything. The sounds of the oven opening brought me out of my stupor and I went into the kitchen to see how Bella was doing.

I paused for a moment as I saw Bella close the oven door. She had the standing mixer uncovered and the baking sheets out. A few of the ingredients were still sitting on the counter and I realized that she resorted to something that she says never fails to relax her.

Bella turned from what she was doing in the oven as I walked up to her and she pulled me into her arms. I leaned down to take in her intoxicating scent and revel in the comfort of her arms for a few minutes. After a moment I leaned back and looked into her chocolate brown eyes which were tinged with a sadness that I couldn't stand to see. "I can't loose her, Bella. She's my world."

"Oh, Edward, neither can I." She pulled me back into her arms, and I could feel the warmth of her tears soaking into my shirt. The hole in my heart got worse as I realized that Bella felt the same amount of frustration and sadness at my daughter being taken from us. Because it was no longer just Lizzie and I in our little family, it was Bella, too. "What did Carlisle have to say?"

"We have to bring the paperwork down to his office so he can see what we're dealing with. Can you be ready to go in ten minutes?"

"Yeah, just let me take this batch out of the oven and stick the dough in the fridge. I called Esme," she admitted tentatively.

"Yeah, what did she say?"

"She's going to take Lizzie." I felt a little bit of relief as Bella ran her fingers through my hair soothingly. Bella and I had talked in length about her boss, and had nothing but good words for the woman who treated all the kids who came through her office as if they were her own.

"Alright, that's at least one good thing." I sighed and rested my chin on her head, basking in the support of this wonderful woman. The tiny sound of the alarm rang out in the silent kitchen and Bella turned to get the cookies out of the oven. I grabbed the bowl of cookie dough and placed it in the fridge as she took the cookies off the trays. "Let's get going."

We got to Carlisle's office in record time, Bella's knuckles were white from the grip she had on the armrest next to her. We walked in and I waved at Heidi, Carlisle's secretary as we came up to her desk. She waved us in, probably knowing that Carlisle was waiting for us to get there.

I tapped on the door just before I opened it and escorted Bella in. Carlisle stood looking out the windows of his office, his hands on his hips. I cleared my throat and he turned around quickly.

"Ah, Edward, and this must be Bella. So glad to meet you, but I wish it was under better circumstances. Carlisle Cullen," Carlisle thrust his hand out for Bella to shake and then we sat in the comfy club chairs on the opposite side of his desk.

"It's nice to meet you, too," Bella said as I handed the papers to Carlisle and he looked them over, rifling through them nearly noiselessly. Bella captured my hand in hers and smiled at me when I looked over at her. Relief coursed through me at the idea of this wonderful woman being with me in spite of the drama that was currently plaguing me.

"Well, this is pretty cut and dried Edward. She's claiming that you abused Lizzie and her during your marriage. The firm that's representing her is _De Luca & Romano_. I'm not surprised that they're taking on a case like this; they're known for giving lawyers a bad name. I've gone head to head with Aro De Luca, and so I know some of the tricks he likes to pull. Now, since there's no proof of your abusing either of them, it's going to come down to testimony. Is there anyone who can testify on your behalf?"

"Yeah, my old mentor in Chicago, Eleazar Castillo, along with his wife Carmen; they came over regularly and had seen many example of Tanya's neglect. We were also over at their house on a semi-regular basis. Carmen babysat for Lizzie on occasion. My cousin Rosalie and her fiance, Emmett, could also be brought forward as character witnesses since they come over frequently and could testify as to the care and treatment that Lizzie gets in my custody since being in California."

"That's good." Carlisle was scribbling down notes on a pad of paper as we talked, hopefully creating a defense that would be able to get rid of Tanya and her scheming. "I'll need their contact information, so I can get in touch with them as soon as possible. Now, Bella, since I know Aro is going to use you to smear Edward as much as possible, I'm going to need to get testimony on your behalf as well. Would your boss be able to testify?"

"I'm sure Esme would be more than willing to testify on my behalf." If I hadn't been looking at Carlisle when Bella mentioned 'Esme' I would have never seen him flinch. _I wonder what's up with that?_ "Do you need character witnesses for me as well? I'm sure Alice and Jasper would be willing to testify."

"We'll speak with them and have them ready to testify, but only as a last resort. I would really like to sit down with your boss -- Esme is it?" Carlisle's voice wavered a bit as he asked and Bella nodded in confirmation, "--and speak with her about what is going on with the investigation into your findings. This will be pivotal in the case. Do you think she would be adverse to a dinner meeting tonight? That's the only free time that I will have today."

"I'll call her and ask. I'm sure she'll be able to make it."

"Well, Bella, Edward, it looks like I have my work cut out for me. If you can just provide me with the contact information for all the people we spoke about and I'll get started on gathering the necessary information." We quickly ran down all the information, both Bella and I pulling out our cell phones to get the necessary phone numbers. Carlisle asked us to meet him at Cafe Sevilla, in downtown Long Beach, for dinner that night. We agreed and Bella told us that she would have Esme meet us there at seven.

We walked back to the car in silence, with Bella's hand in mine, her thumb rubbing along the outside of mine every so often. The ride home was also silent, not uncomfortable, just both of us lost in our own thoughts as we reviewed what had already happened so far. I stopped at a burger joint on our way and picked us up something to eat, knowing that even though I wasn't hungry, we still needed to put something in our bodies.

We got home, and I helped Bella finish baking the last of the cookies. When we were done, Bella put some of the cookies in a Tupperware to give to Esme for Lizzie. We sat around on the couch after that and popped in a movie, just trying to take our minds off of the stress. Holding her in my arms was the closest thing to comfort that I could get at the moment. The only thing that could have been better was if there was another, smaller pair of arms wrapped around me as well.

We wasted time until we needed to get ready to go to dinner. I had been to Cafe Sevilla before with Carlisle, so I dressed casually in a black button up with jeans. When Bella stepped out of her room, I caught my breath at the vision before me. She was wearing a tight pair of jeans that looked like they were painted on and a soft, short sleeve sweater that made my fingers itch to touch her. Her feet were encased by a pair of heels that made my own feet feel pinched with how sharp they looked. I did like them, though, because the height made it easy for me to steal kisses from her which I did as often as I could.

It wasn't the clothes that made me catch my breath, it was the air of dignity and complete lack of awareness of how beautiful she was. Her hair fell down her back in waves and I just wanted to gather it up and run my fingers through it. She had washed her face free of make up, and I saw that her eyes were red from crying.

I wrapped my left arm around her back and pulled her into me, my right hand coming up and brushing just below her eye. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm alright." she said as she brushed aside my concern for her. "If I talk about it I'm just going to cry more. I'm okay for now. How about you?"

I was amazed yet again at her selfless caring, and said to her, "We'll get through this. I know we will."

I pulled Bella along to the car and held her door as she carefully got in. I shut the door carefully and made my way around. The bittersweet sounds of Nocturne by Chopin floated quietly out of the speakers as I started the car. We both listened to the music and didn't speak much on our way to the restaurant. We got there quickly and I parked in one of the underground parking lots peppered throughout downtown Long Beach.

I grabbed Bella's hand and helped her out of the car, steadying her a bit after she stumbled. I tried not to think about how good her soft breasts felt against my chest as I held her there for just a moment.

We walked to the restaurant which was only a little bit away from the parking garage. I spoke to the hostess at the front of the restaurant, and she said that Carlisle and his other guest had already been seated. Bella's hand on my arm tightened as the hostess leaned over the desk, and offered to take us back to them. I ignored her and headed back towards the direction she had indicated.

I pulled Bella to my side and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as I searched for Carlisle's blonde hair in the crowd and spotted him in a booth near the back. I made eye contact with him as we walked up to the table and took in the caramel haired head that was sitting across from him. Carlisle looked stress and from the volume of the conversation, I could tell that it was not going well.

"You know what, Carlisle, I don't think that's any of your business," I heard the woman, who I assumed was Esme, say to him as she stood up, grabbing her purse and coat.

"I just wanted to-" Carlisle stood, his hand reaching out to her as if to calm her down.

"I don't care what you want. Fuck you Carlisle," she fumed, then added, "And your brother." The look on her face was murderous as she stormed past Bella and I.

"What the hell was that Carlisle?" I asked.

"I just asked her why she was still using the last name of Cullen."

"_Still_?" Bella questioned as she slid into the booth with me right behind her.

"She was married to my brother." Carlisle's face dropped at this and the agony was written on his face.

"What is this? Carlisle, I want details. You told me your brother was scum." I pushed him for answers.

"Alright, but you can't tell Esme anything about what I'm going to tell you. Do you promise Bella?" Carlisle's gaze was pleading as he asked her. She nodded and he continued, "I met Esme Platt, on the day before she got married. To my brother, Marcus. For me, it was love at first sight. I couldn't help myself, she was so beautiful, her happiness was radiating out of her.

"I kept my distance from her, especially at family functions, since it was hard to see her so happy with my brother. It was an easy thing to accomplish, at that time I was still going to law school, so I had the easy excuse of being to busy to come or, if I showed up, staying too long. I was graduating from law school when we got the news. Esme had been in an accident and had miscarried her baby. She was three months pregnant at the time. As soon as my graduation was over, my parents and I rushed to the hospital. I can still feel the shock at being told she was in the hospital. I couldn't stand that she had been hurt.

"As soon as we got the news that she was alright, I left. There was no way that I would be able to keep my distance if I saw her at that point, so I left without even seeing her. My mother kept me informed as to her condition, since she had figured out my secret while we were all waiting for more information at the hospital.

"Two more years passed, and I was a junior partner at a family law firm when my brother first approached me. Marcus explained that Esme wanted to divorce him and he was wondering if I would represent him. I, of course, said yes.

"It wasn't until we were midway through the proceedings that it came out that he had been abusing her for the last four years. Her 'accident', hadn't been an accident at all. He had pushed her down a flight of stairs after another one of their arguments; she had threatened to leave him. She was staying at my mother's house during the divorce, and he finally gave up on her, happy to slap his mistresses around instead. When I found out about this, I made sure that he gave her everything in the divorce. She got the house, the cars, alimony, everything. He was a wealthy real estate agent, so it was no skin off his back to give it to her.

"It broke my heart to realize that all this time he had been hurting her, when I would have jumped at a chance to love her." The look of defeat on his face as he finished his story must have been how I looked earlier in the day when Lizzie was taken from me.

"Why don't you explain all this to her?" Bella asked quietly.

"I've tried," he replied, "but she won't let me speak with her. She hates me. My brother filled her head with lies, saying that I hated her and never wanted to be around her. Unknowingly, he saw my reaction to her at their wedding rehearsal. In fact, he even confessed, under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol, that he would beat her whenever she asked him about me.

"My brother and I had a rocky relationship to begin with and his sense of competition was only exacerbated by the love he knew I harbored for her. He couldn't stand to see me win.

"Enough; this is enough." Carlisle said as his face cleared of emotions. "Now, on to your situation. Since I won't be able to speak with Esme, I'll just fill you two in with what information I found. It seems to me that Tanya's bitten off a little more than she can chew." Carlisle smirked.

"What? Why?" I asked, excited at the prospect of being able to bury Tanya at her own game.

"I looked at who was slated to preside over this matter, and it seems that Maggie Fírinne, a previous colleague of mine is going to be the judge in this. She has a reputation for not tolerating any lies in her courtroom and will be able to differentiate the truth from the fiction."

"Well, that's a bit of a relief, then. Any other good news?" I felt a bit of anxiety and stress melt away at the news.

"I got the dates nailed down for when we are to start bringing in testimony and Eleazar and Carmen have cleared their schedule to fly in for that week. All of the other witnesses are scheduled to come in this week and speak with me about what they can testify about and I can finish preparing the case. I don't foresee any major problems."

"Well, let's just hope it stays that way," Bella said as our food arrived. We dug in and the conversation turned to inconsequential things. Neither Bella nor I were fooled by his covert attempts to get info out of Bella about Esme. At one point, she just broke down and told him everything she knew about Esme, from her favorite flowers, to her favorite bands. Carlisle absorbed this information like a thirsty man in the desert absorbs water. We laughed at him when he tried to pry for more information, but Bella said that that was all she knew. I'd never seen Carlisle pout before, and it made us laugh even harder.

We left the restaurant in a better mood than when we got there, and Bella and I stopped at the beach by my house on the way back and walked out on the sand. The sand felt good under our bare toes as we listened to the waves crash on the shore and looked at the lights twinkling across the water from the harbor and from further beyond in San Pedro and Palos Verdes. We made our way back to the house after dropping by mine to see how the repairs were going.

When we got home, we both got into our pj's and put a movie on in my bedroom and held each other as we fell asleep. _There's nothing better than falling asleep in the arms of the woman you love._

* * *

**A/N: ****The Eddies and the Bellies Nominations are up, so go nominate some of your favorite fics... That's what I'm going to do next....**

**REC'S**

**No Sleep for the Wicked by justaskalice ExB  
Insecurities by James Ramsey JxB  
Into the Mystic by 107yearoldvirgin ExB**

**Please review! I really like knowing your opinion of what's going on. **

**What's your favorite Tapas? Mine is the Shrimp Azafran, Dates stuffed with Cabrales Blue Cheese, and the Seafood Crepe. mmm-mmm-mmm.**


	10. Worries and Shopping

**A/N: thank you to my beta, Pire. Without you, I'd still be buying my entertainment instead of reading it for free on the internet... :D Thanks for saving me a boat load of money!!!**

**I'm sorry this it out late. I knew where this chapter was supposed to go, but I had no idea how to get it there. It took me a while longer to figure it out than I normally do, so yeah... Thanks for the patience on this one!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I really appreciated it and it encouraged me to write. I know I didn't reply to any of them, which I normally try to do, but I kept thinking, 'I'll write the preview before I'll reply' and I didn't write anything till Wednesday night (which wasn't worthy of the preview)... SORRY, and thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I did read each and every one of them and appreciated the encouragement.**

**To answer the question that came up a couple of times, Tapas are GOOD! Wikipedia defines tapas as this: ****Tapas** (IPA: [ˈtaˌpas]) is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as _puntillitas_, which are battered, fried baby squid).** Whenever I've gone out for Tapas, we usually order 2 or 3 per person and share. Some are really rich so it would be hard to eat more than a little of it anyways.**

**Anyways, enough of this long A/N...**

**Twilight and it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyer. I don't own.**

**Happy Reading!**

**

* * *

  
**

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter Ten

Worries and Shopping

BPOV

Tuesday was slow, with nothing to do but worry about how Lizzie was doing. Edward went back to work and I sat at home staring at the TV, dazing off into the distance, remembering each and every moment I had spent with that precious little girl. The night went slowly without Edward by my side, and when I finally hauled myself to bed; I tossed and turned much of the night.

By Wednesday, I had eventually moved onto thinking about every case that I had ever worked on, and how they might find something wrong with decisions I had made. Had the abusive mother that I had taken her daughters from deserve a second chance? Was the dad who had a history of drug abuse actually sober? I started second guessing myself and all the decisions I had come to. I was nearing a panic attack when my cell phone started ringing.

"Hello?" I asked timidly.

"Bella? Get dressed, we're going shopping," I heard Alice's voice come through the phone dictatorially.

"Huh - wha?" I mumbled at her as I stared down at my pajama clad body. _How did she know I wasn't dressed?_

"Go take a shower, too. I'm sure you stink." I sniffed my armpit at her accusation and didn't smell anything out of the ordinary. I shrugged as she continued. "I will be there in twenty minutes. Rose is going to meet us at the mall."

"And why am I going to subject myself to your favorite form of torture?"

"Because you're moping, and worrying, and you need to get your mind off of things. I know you and we're going to indulge in a little retail therapy."

"But you're definition of retail therapy isn't good for my wallet," I complained realizing the uncertainties of my employment meant that I needed to save all my pennies.

"You're not bringing your wallet with you, now stop complaining and get your butt in the shower." _Click_. I stared at my phone for a moment, realizing that Alice had just hung up on me. _ Ah, well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em_.

I pulled myself out of the funk I was currently in, turned off the TV, and wandered into the bathroom to start up the shower. As the steam started to build up, I stared at myself in the mirror. There were slight bags under my eyes from the restless night's sleep I'd been having. I knew that the circles would only get worse as this week progressed. I brushed my teeth and hair quickly and then slipped out of my pajamas and stepped into the shower. The hot water cascaded down my back and the heat permeated my bones, relaxing me more than anything else could. I made quick work of my shower, only lingering a little at the end to let the hot water do it's magic on my tight muscles.

The doorbell rang just as I was putting my shoes on. I had dressed in a pair of comfy jeans and a graphic tee that was sure to put Alice's teeth on edge. If she was going to be subjecting me to shopping, it was only fair for me to dress in 'Comfortable Hobo Couture' as she liked to call it. She was sure to be dressed to the nines and I wasn't disappointed when I opened the door to let her in. I barely missed being attacked by her giant tote that hung off her arm like a lead balloon, as she pulled me in for a hug and gave me a couple of air kisses. Her black, spiky hair was covered with a black and white print silk scarf and her giant glasses covered half her face. It wasn't until I pulled back from her that I got a clear view of her entire outfit.

"Where did you get that dress? I like it!" I was shocked at how much I liked what she was wearing. Alice had a tendency to wear all modern styles of clothes, and I liked to wear more classic and vintage style clothing whenever I could. She was clearly making a nod to the classics, with her black button up shirt dress. It was tailored throughout the torso, till it got to her waist, where it poofed out as if she wore a crinoline underneath. The sleeves were three-quarter length but had been rolled up to just above the elbow. The chunky white beaded necklace reminded me of the necklace Wilma Flintstone wore.

"I kind of knew you would. This is my test pattern. I wanted to check and make sure it fit the way I wanted to before I made one for you. I think I'm going to do yours in black and white gingham with red buttons." Alice twirled once to show of the way the dress flared and I caught sight of the back-seamed nylons she had on that went with her dress.

"I love it! Are you branching out into clothing now?" I asked curious about her newest creations, knowing she had only been sewing quilts, baby clothes/burp cloths, and aprons.

"I'm only going to do a couple of vintage items, and see how they sell. If they do well, I'll make some more. Now, let's go back up to your room, and we'll fix this train wreck you call an ensemble." Alice said as she circled around me once, taking in my clothes.

"Alice, please let me be comfortable," I pleaded with her.

"Oh, no worries, I'm not going to change much," she said as she pulled me up the stairs towards the guest room I'd been occupying. Alice started flipping through the hangers as she searched through what I had clean. "Ah-ha! Found it!"

Alice pulled out a modified blazer that she had made for me a couple of months ago, but I never knew exactly what to wear it with. She had taken a black blazer and added uneven, teal stitching to the all the edges as well as outlines of the pockets. There was even a couple of teal fleur de lis embroidered on the lapels as well as some non-uniform, silver pin striping all over it. The sleeves of the blazer came out to a point where the buttons were supposed to be, and there were some teal gemstones sewn into the button holes. "Put this on over what you're wearing, and take off those shoes," she said as she went back to going through my closet.

I huffed as she continued to dig and sat down on my bed, pulling my shoes and socks off. She threw me a pair of basic black stilettos which I obediently put on. While I was doing this she pulled my hair out of the messy bun I had thrown it into, and pinned it up into an elegant chignon. I slipped on a pair of black feather earrings, and a black lace-covered, silver bead necklace. When I looked into the mirror I was pleasantly surprised to see that the couple additions to my outfit did make me look like I was a lot more fashion forward than I actually was. I added a bit of eyeliner, mascara, and a sheer lipgloss, instantly making me feel as if _I_ could take on Alice and her shopping torture.

"Beautiful," Alice said quietly when I turned to her. I grabbed her hand and we started towards the stairs and quickly left the house. There was no way I was going to spend any more time than necessary getting out of the house, otherwise Alice would have changed her mind and found another 'perfect' outfit for me to wear. Since I would be changing enough today with the, no doubt, inordinate amount of time I would be spending in the dressing rooms. I grabbed my purse off the little table in the foyer on the way out the door and locked the door behind us. Alice's bright yellow porsche gleamed in the sunlight as we got in and took off for the mall.

We were amidst piles of clothes Alice had been sorting into rejects and keeps, when she got a text message from Rose asking where we were. She sent a message and not more than five minutes later, Rose was standing in the doorway of the giant dressing room smirking at the piles of clothing at our feet.

"You know, that dress will never flatter your figure as well as the one on the hanger behind you will." Rosalie said as she pointed to the charcoal gray knit dress that had been the one thing that I had actually been tempted to buy.

"She's right, you know," Alice agreed quickly. "That knit dress looked awesome. It will be great in the winter time when it gets cold."

"Yes, I'm aware," I said trying to defend myself. "I was going to buy it. I was just hanging up this one for the poor saleswomen."

"Isn't it their job to clean up after there customers?" Alice asked.

"I'm sure, but you have the ability to make a bigger mess than five customers." I rolled my eyes at Alice's ability to shop till she dropped.

"Whateves. I may make a bigger mess, but I'm also buying more clothes than five customers, and since they make commission, I think it's worth the price of cleaning up after me," Alice retorted. "Besides, I have been a loyal customer to Margarite for the last ten years... _Ever since mom and dad gave me my first credit card." _Alice got a weird, shiny-eyed, far-off look. "She loves me, she always lets me see all the new stuff before it goes out on the floor."

"She only does that since she knows you can't go a week without buying something. You can't resist shopping," I said with a smile so she knew I was only kidding with her.

"True, I love me a good sale!" Alice smiled and we all chuckled at her enthusiasm which was written all over her face.

"So, I was thinking that since we have you in a mall, and I need to get some decisions for the wedding done, we could maybe look for your bridesmaid dress?" Rosalie asked timidly.

"YES!" Alice answered for me. "She'd love to!"

I rolled my eyes at Alice's comment, but the eagerness in Rose's eyes to this with me caused me to change my reply from a derisive statement to an answer in all seriousness. "Of course, Rosalie, I would love to."

"Good, I thought that since you didn't really seem interested in the wedding," she went on carefully, "you might not be interested in-"

"Rosalie Hale, do you think I'm not interested in your wedding?" I was completely flabbergasted by this woman's lack of confidence in herself. She was beautiful and poised. I'd never met a more confident looking woman in my life.

"Well, you never want to talk about the wedding when Alice and I talk about it, I thought you didn't care..." she trailed off nervously picking at some imaginary lint on her sleeve.

"You are the woman my brother is marrying. I'm interested in _you_, not what flowers you choose for me to hold. I'm sorry if I've given you that impression, I like you very much. I think you're perfect for my brother." Rosalie pulled me into her arms, sniffling a little.

"Rosalie, once you get to know Bella better, you'll realize that she's not normal." Alice ducked as I grabbed one of the dresses off the rack and threw it at her. "She doesn't do all those girly things that you would expect of her. The fact that she invited you straight off to Chuck's on Sunday mornings is a big thing to her. It took six months for her to concede to my begging to bring Jasper to our little get-togethers."

Rosalie giggled as I replied, "Oh, whatever, Alice, it was not six months. Try six weeks."

"Yeah, well it seemed like forever." I rolled my eyes as we finished putting the dressing room to rights and grabbed the things we had decided to purchase. On the way out the door I snagged the gray dress we had been discussing, and took it with me to the cash register.

Two hours later, we were at the David's Bridal, going through the bridesmaid's dress options. Rather than picking one dress that might not flatter all the girls, she decided to get different dresses for every girl in the same color, black with touches of red. I came out of the dressing room in what felt like dress number twenty-seven, when Alice let out a low moan and clutched her side as she abruptly sat down on the chair that was behind her. Rosalie and I were immediately at her side; Alice's face was screwed up in pain and she was panting heavily.

"What's wrong?" I asked pulling Alice's hand between mine. She immediately squeezed mine, holding onto it tightly.

"Sharp. Pain." Alice answered between breaths. Her breathing evened out and the tension in her face smoothed out.

"What the hell was that?" I asked letting the worry creep into my voice.

"I don't know, it was a really sharp pain, like a hot knife in my side." Alice's voice was still breathy from her heavy breathing.

"Have you been having these pains recently?" Rosalie asked, her tone in nurse mode.

"Not as bad, but I figured I was just finally having my period."

"How late is your period?"

"I think about two weeks, but it's never been very regular."

"How long have you been having these pains?"

"The last couple of days."

"I think you should go to the hospital. I don't know what exactly is wrong, but you should probably get it checked out."

"But if it's just my period coming, I'll feel stupid going into the emergency room," Alice protested. She hated going to the doctors and since she was generally healthy as a horse, she protested even more when she had to go. I had to force her to go to the emergency room when she had bronchitis last year.

"Alice, you're going," I said firmly. "If Rosalie said you need to be checked out, I'll drag you there myself if I have to."

"That was some pretty serious pain you were in. You need to get it checked out." Rosalie added.

"Fine. But if it's nothing you owe me," Alice said as she glared at me.

"Yeah, fine, I'm getting out of this dress, and I'm driving your car," I said as I turned toward the dressing rooms.

"No, I refuse to let you drive my baby," Alice protested.

"Do you really think you could keep control of the car if you get hit with that pain again?" I asked incredulously.

"I guess not. Alright. Let's go get this over with."

I changed and we headed out to her car. The quick drive to the hospital took less time than I was expecting since I drove faster than Alice normally would. We got out and walked quickly towards the doors. We got her checked into the emergency room and luckily they didn't have a long wait. Thirty minutes later, the three of us were being ushered into an exam room. I thought I saw a flash of copper hair out of the corner of my eye, but knew it couldn't be Edward since he had been off work for the last thirty minutes. I had texted him while we were waiting to let him know that I would be home later, and that I was currently with Alice.

The doctor asked Alice some questions, and I was distracted through most of it. I barely heard the doctor call out to the nurse, "Can I get a pregnancy test in room 102 and an ultrasound machine brought in?"

* * *

**A/N: This week I'm not recommending a story, I'm recommending a blog. Altered Lions and Sacrificial Lambs is an amazing blog to get reviews, recommendations, and my favorite, House of Debauchery pics... Amazing blog.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviews. I really do appreciate it. I will try to reply in spite of my epic fail last week.**


	11. Fights and Flights

**A/N: Thanks goes to my beta Pire. I love the ideas that come out of your brain! **

**No excuses, I suck, this is late, and yeah... that's all I've got. On a side note, it is longer than the last chapter, so it's like one and a third chapters...**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyers. I don't own.**

**Happy Reading!**

**

* * *

**

Exes and Ohs

Chapter Eleven

Fights and Flights

EPOV

I had to have had the shift from hell tonight. Besides all the craziness throughout the shift, we had a emergency come in an hour before I was scheduled to be off. There were quite a few complications that couldn't have been expected and the surgery ran longer than was originally called for. My entire body was achy and sore afterward and I was ready to go home.

I was about to call Bella and let her know that I was running late on getting home, when a text message came in from her letting me know that she was out with Alice and would be home later. I walked down to the emergency room to say goodnight to one of my colleagues, when I saw Bella walk into one of the exam rooms. I was about to walk down there and find out what was going on when I heard the doctor call out, "can I get a pregnancy test in room 102 and an ultrasound machine brought in?"

_What? She's pregnant?_

My mind went in a million directions at once trying to figure out the ramifications of getting pregnant right now. My career was just taking off, would I have enough time to devote to Bella and the little one? How would we handle having another child in the house? How will Lizzie deal with the new addition? How do we get them acclimated to each other? Do we rub the new one's body with a worn t-shirt of Lizzie's so that the new one smells like her? _That's cats you dumb ass._

I thought back to every time we had sex. We used condoms and I didn't remember any of them breaking. I reversed directions and headed to my car; once there, I quickly started it up and drove home.

I took a hot shower, trying to relax my body which had previously been exhausted and ready for bed, but was now wound up with the possibilities of having another kid. _Did Bella even want kids? _We hadn't even said I love you, let alone discussed white picket fences and bundles of joy. I let myself wander along those lines and was half-way to proposing to her when I stopped myself short - _How do I even know if she was pregnant?_ I'll just have to be patient and wait for her to tell me.

With that thought in mind, I hopped out of the shower and changed into a pair of sleep pants and went downstairs to watch tv as I waited for Bella to come home.

Three hours and four episodes of _Don't Lie to Me_ later, Bella finally walked into the house looking as if her cat died. She immediately found me and collapsed into my arms.

"You alright?" I asked into her hair as her warm breath tickled along my skin.

She shook her head.

"Want to talk about it?" I asked.

She shook her head again. "I just want you to hold me." Her voice was rough as if she had been crying.

I pulled her in tighter to my chest and ran my fingers through her hair, dragging my fingertips along her scalp. She burrowed into my side as I started up another show to watch, this time House, M.D. since she liked had confessed to having a mini-crush on Hugh Laurie.

Halfway through, I noticed that she was no longer laughing at the antics of Dr. House and realized she had fallen asleep. I turned off the tv, gently lifted her in my arms and made my way up to my bed, turning off the lights as I went. Carefully, so as not to wake her, I laid her down in the bed and stripped her of her clothes. My pajama pants were quickly tossed on the floor as I slid into bed pulling Bella into my arms carefully. I quickly fell asleep with dreams of babies and bottles floating in my head.

Thursday morning was bright and clear as I woke to the sound of Bella heaving her guts out. When I heard that sound, all I could think of was _that's it, we're pregnant! I wonder if it would be too soon to propose to her this weekend?_ I walked into the bathroom and held her hair back for her and helped her back to bed when she was done. It was a good thing Bella was still half asleep, since it was hard for me to wipe the goofy grin off my face.

I had another killer shift starting later this morning, but Bella had to be in to work at nine for an interview with whoever it was that was investigating her case. An hour after she emptied her stomach, she started getting ready to go into work, and kissed me before she left. I was hoping that she would tell me that we were pregnant sooner rather than later. The tension was killing me.

Thursday afternoon blurred into Friday morning quickly. My mind was preoccupied with all the different arrangements that would be needed to welcome the new little one into our family. This, along with the stress of Lizzie not being home and that mess, added to the mess of worry and fear that sat in my stomach like a lump of cold oatmeal.

I was tempted to pull Bella's file from records and check and see the results for myself, but I knew that it would be a gigantic violation if I got caught. It wasn't worth it to me to know for sure. Bella would tell me.

One of my favorite patients was being released in the middle of my shift. Thomas Danville, age sixty-two, had come in with a mild cardiac arrest, but had complications during surgery. He had been kept under observation for an extra couple of days to make sure the complications didn't lead to anything else. His wife, Betty had been at the hospital constantly. Their two gray heads were constantly bent together in conversation, as if plotting how to break him out of the hospital if he had to be here any longer. I was constantly being badgered and kept on my toes by Betty's requests to get Thomas released. We were finally able to clear him today and they were going home.

It was their level of devotion that made me realize that that was what I wanted with Bella. I wanted to know that in thirty five years from now, we would be just as completely in love with each other as I am with her now. Seeing the two of them cemented my resolve to propose to Bella tonight.

After my shift, I went home and collapsed. Bella had called earlier in the day to leave me a message saying that she would be at Alice's house, and not to expect her till later.

I slept until she got home but she was just as quiet as she had been Wednesday night.

"Do you want to go out to dinner tonight, baby?" I said, hoping the word baby would prompt her into telling me the good news.

"Yeah, I don't really feel like cooking right now." she sighed as she fell back against the couch.

"How 'bout Le Creperie?" I asked. It was one of her favorite places and would be just the right type of mood for what I had planned.

"That sounds good."

We went to the restaurant and had a romantic dinner; the live jazz band played in the background. Throughout dinner we held hands, the softness of her small delicate hand so warm in mine. I was so nervous I nearly blurted it out in the middle of dinner, but realized, the closeness of the tables together wouldn't make it quite as special as I wanted it to be. We took a walk down to the beach, to wander on the sand, after dinner. She looked so beautiful with the light from the setting sun making her glow. I took a couple of moments to prepare myself, running my hand through my hair, fiddling with the ring in my pocket, which I swear got heavier with every moment I waited, and just plunged in head first.

"Bella, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" I waited on bended knee for her answer, the sand still warm from the heat of the day.

BPOV

Edward had been acting weird most of the week. I couldn't place my finger on what it was that was different with him, but I knew it was there. Between Lizzie being taken, the investigation, and Alice getting sick, I didn't need this added tension to the mix.

I had been spending most of my days helping Alice at home, who was recovering from her surgery. Bridgette loved to help out, but Alice needed someone to make sure she rested and didn't try to push herself too hard.

Friday night rolled around, and I was so worn out from helping Alice, I easily acquiesced to Edward's suggestion of dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.

Throughout dinner I was only half listening to the conversation with Edward, just managing to nod and mumble at the right points. We finished it up and walked down to the beach that I loved so much. I was staring off at the lights from Palas Verdes as they reflected on the water, trying to imagine what it would look like without the port of Long Beach and Los Angeles between there and here. I turned to Edward after he tugged at my hand and found him kneeling on one knee looking earnestly at me.

"Bella, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" I stood there in shock for a moment.

"What?" I finally managed to gasp out, ripping my hand out of his in shock.

"Will you marry me?" He pulled an antique ring out of his pocket, and took my left hand holding it at the tip of my ring finger.

"Why? Don't get me wrong, Edward, I'd love to marry you, but we've only been dating for a month. Isn't this a little sudden?" His face fell and I could barely stand to see the hurt look in his eyes.

Edward, still on his knee, pleaded with his eyes and said, "Yeah, it is sudden, but when you know, you know. My parents only dated two months before they got engaged, and they've been married thirty-five years."

"I don't know Edward. Can we do this later? It feels really sudden to me. We don't even have your daughter back. Can we shelve this for now and discuss it when we're both not under so much stress?"

"Yeah, but I would think you would want to get married before you got bigger," He said as he got up from his knee and wrapped his arms around me, with my back resting against his front, his hands on my stomach.

"Bigger? Am I gaining weight?" Now I was really confused.

"Well, you know, with the baby."

_What the - ??? _ "Edward, do you think I'm _pregnant_?" I asked, barely whispering the last word. I turned around in his arms to look in his face.

"Well, yeah." he said, his brows drawing together.

"Edward, I'm not pregnant." My mind scrambled to come up with how Edward managed to go from point A to point C without a stop for point B which was apparently where the logic was being handed out.

"But you had morning sickness. On Thursday morning." He cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"I had food poisoning. Rosalie and I had some bad sushi." I felt my body getting colder in the warm air.

"But you were at the hospital?" This time it came out as a question. "On Wednesday? They ordered a pregnancy test, and an ultrasound."

"That was for Alice. They thought she had an Ectopic Pregnancy." I said, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"Oh," the disappointment was evident in his voice. He stared at the sand as if someone kicked his puppy.

"Did you only propose because of the pregnancy?" I asked horror rising as I realized the implications of his proposal.

"No, I love you! I know I've never said it, but I do, I love you! That's why I want us to get married." his eyes went wild.

"Yeah, but you only proposed when you thought I was pregnant. You can't deny that if you hadn't thought I was pregnant, you would have never proposed."

"No, but I want this! I never thought about it till this situation came up, but I know this is right Bella." The stubborn tilt to his chin made me realize that he wasn't going to be giving up anytime soon.

"How do I know that you'd only want me if I was pregnant, Edward?" the tears that were fighting to break free, finally did and tracked down my face. "Well, I guess the jokes on you since there's a low probability of me _ever_ getting pregnant." I couldn't help the bitterness that tinged my tone.

"What?" he said in a strangled voice. The devastation on his face was enough to keep the tears rolling down my face.

"I was diagnosed with cervical cancer ten years ago. If I got pregnant, which would be very unlikely, I would most likely be unable to carry to full term. It would be a very high risk pregnancy. But you know that, you're a doctor." I sneered.

"But - "

"I don't think I can do any more of this tonight," I cut him off, not willing to listen to the platitudes I was sure to receive. I'd heard them all before and had no tolerance for them. "I'm tired. My best friend is recovering from surgery, and it hurts too much thinking that you only want me for what I can produce."

I turned away from him and started to walk away, but was brought up short by his hand on my arm. "Where are you going? Your house isn't finished yet."

"Alice's house. Her couch is calling my name," the tone of my voice sounded dead even to my ears.

"Will you at least let me walk you there? I don't like you being out here in the dark alone."

"Fine." I walked quickly, going over the events in my head trying to figure out what had happened and how we had gone from normal to nightmare in the course of a conversation. What could I have done to prevent this tragedy?

I texted Jasper on the way over and when we arrived, the door was unlocked. I turned to Edward and dodged his lips as he moved to kiss me, his lips brushing my cheek. I pulled back to see the desolation and hurt in his eyes and tried to offer him a bit of salve to his pain saying, "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Edward."

I walked into the house and headed toward the kitchen where there was still a light on. Jasper was standing there in the kitchen, pulling two mugs out of the cupboard and pouring us a steaming cup of coffee. I moved to one of the bar stools and stared at the dark brew, hoping that it would give me answers to all of my life's mysteries.

"Forty-two," Jasper's voice broke the silence.

"Huh?" I asked completely confused as my eyes met his twinkling ones.

"Forty-two. It's the answer. To Life, the Universe, and Everything." He grinned at me in a way that never failed to alert me to his random moments.

"Oh, jeez," I chuckled when I realized what he was referring to. The weight of the conversation between Edward and I was temporarily lifted by Jasper's humor. "You and your Douglas Adams addiction. How many times have you read that book?"

"Hey, it managed to make you laugh."

"True."

"You want to talk about it?" he asked, suddenly serious.

"Talk about what?" I deflected.

"You can't bluff me Bella, I may not know you as long as Alice, but I've picked up on all your tells. You're upset," he commented knowingly.

"You're right. But I don't want to talk about it. I want to drink about it; you up for beer at Murphy's?"

"Yeah, let me go tell Alice, and we'll head on down there," he said as he walked toward their bedroom.

"Alright." I dumped both cups of coffee into the sink and walked to the couch in the living room where I had dropped off my purse. I pulled some cash, my id, and my keys and tucked them into the back pocket of my jeans.

"Ready?" Jasper asked as he walked up, shrugging into a zip-up hoodie.

"Yeah. How's she doing?" I asked as we stepped out into the night. It had gotten a little chilly and I pulled my sweater closer to me as we started walking up the street to Murphy's.

"She's alright. Hates being on bedrest, but is putting up with it for now. Every time I come home from work, I'm certain I'm going to find her up and about, doing something crazy. I feel like I should tie her to the bed in the mornings to make sure she doesn't get up."

I chuckled at the visual of that dancing in my head. "Yeah, I've never known her stay down for long. Just wait a week, she'll be up and about by then."

"I'm going to just have to threaten her then, I guess. Maybe she'll stay down for the baby's sake." I looked over and saw the frown that marred his face.

"I hope so. Not that it's good that she had appendicitis, but I'm so glad that the pains weren't caused by the ectopic pregnancy, that would have been horrible. For the both of you. There was enough stress on her body from the appendicitis, it's a miracle she didn't loose the baby as well."

"I'm just glad they're all right." he said, his relief tinging his voice.

"Rose told me after we got to the hospital that she was scared it was an ectopic pregnancy but didn't want to say anything to Alice since it would probably freak her out. She knew that there was no chance of keeping the baby if it was. We both breathed a sigh of relief when they found the baby in the right place on the ultrasound."

"I'm so glad that the both of you were with her then. I'm pretty sure I would have been useless with worry."

"Yeah, probably," I agreed with a chuckle. We had arrived at Murphy's, headed up the stairs, and took a seat at the bar.

My favorite bartender, Angela, was on and immediately came over as we climbed onto the barstools. Her straight cut bangs were a dark fringe above her eyes, just touching her eyebrows. She had a red and white bandana tied around her head, keeping her hair out of the way. Her black polk-a-dot button down with short cap sleeves did nothing to hide the tattoos that bled across her arms. The full sleeves were a walking advertisement for the quality artwork her boyfriend Ben was able to create. Although hers were all in the sailor jerry style, he was able to branch out and do other styles as well. He had done the work on the few tattoos that I had.

"The usual?" she asked as she pulled two glasses out of the refrigerated case. At our nod, she poured a Guinness for me and a Smithwick's for Jasper. The head of the beer slopped a bit over the sides as she put them on the little cardboard coasters in front of us. "Did I show you my new ink?" Angela asked as we took our first sips, wagging her eyebrows.

I shook my head and she turned her head to her left and pulled the collar of her shirt away from her neck to show a fresh tattoo of leopard spots running up the back of her neck into her hair behind her ear.

"Wow," I said admiring the piece. "That's nice. How's his work going? Steady?"

"Yeah; between the new shop he and his partner opened in Downtown Long Beach, and the original shop in San Pedro, he's pretty busy."

"That's good," I said as I nursed my Guinness.

"Alright, Bella, now spill," Angela said, spreading her arms over the bar.

Jasper bust out in a howl of laughter that made me jump.

"What?" Angela asked when Jasper calmed down. "You've rarely been in here since you started dating that Edward guy, and you look all mopey right now. Care to tell me why you're here instead of with him?"

"He proposed," I said completely lacking in emotion.

Jasper's jaw dropped as Angela screeched, "What?"

"He proposed. Tonight. After dinner."

"And?" Angela turned her hand over and over to indicate that I needed to continue my story.

"I asked him why. I said it seemed kinda sudden to me, and we decided to discuss it at another time."

Jasper had managed to pick his jaw up off the ground and got involved in the conversation again. "That couldn't be the only reason you were wanting to get drunk tonight."

"He thought I was pregnant. He saw me walk into the hospital room when I was there with Alice and thought I was there to get a pregnancy test."

"Fu-" Jasper cut himself off from finishing the rest of the word as he pulled me into a one-armed hug. "I'm sorry. Did you tell him about the cancer thing?"

"Yeah. I also told him it would be highly unlikely for me to get pregnant."

"And what did he say?" Angela asked.

"He didn't say anything. I got mad and wouldn't let him talk about it. I came to your house," I nodded my head in Jasper's direction, "saying that I was spending the night there."

"Bella, sweetie, you can't do that." Angela spoke as if she was talking to a kindergartner. "You have to talk about your problems. You can't fix them if you don't discuss them."

_Damn her and her voice of reason_.

"What if that wasn't the issue for him?" Jasper added. "You never told him before about your bout with cancer, how do you expect him to know. Maybe he was just processing that information and didn't have the reaction you were expecting."

"Yeah, but he should have asked me about the pregnancy thing," I complained, "instead of just assuming that I was pregnant. We could have avoided this whole problem all together if he just asked me about it from the beginning."

"You're right," Jasper conceded. "It would have been better if he asked you about it instead of jumping the gun, but I think you were both wrong. You guys need to sit down and discuss this instead of ignoring the issue."

"Bella," Angela said, "do you love Edward?"

"Yes." I said as I realized it had been in my heart for a while, I just never gave voice to the feeling sliding around, warming me from the inside out.

"Then you owe it to yourself, to talk to him about it," Angela said, concern lacing her voice.

"Alright, fine, you win, I'll talk to him about it. I already told him I'd call him tomorrow," I divulged on a sigh.

"Well, at least that's a step in the right direction," Jasper commented. He turned to Angela and said with a grin, "Now, Ang, keep the beer coming, we're going to get plastered."

She chuckled as she turned away, grabbing a couple more glasses as we clinked our nearly empty glasses together, "To Life, the Universe, and Everything."

**

* * *

  
A/N: The holidays are here and I'm just going to warn you now, I will most likely not post next week, seeing as I will be on a mini-vacation with the fam, and will have no internet. I will still write, it just might be a while till I post. Hopefully not as long as this was....**

**Please review! Hearing from you gets me motivated to write...**

**What is your favorite romantic restaurant?**


	12. Hangovers and Marshmallows

**A/N: Thanks to the beta extraordinaire: Pire. Can't wait for ToaF!**

**Sorry it's so late, people, your patience astounds me. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I read each and every one of them. **

**I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for this story. Probably only three or four more chapters and an epilogue... **

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyer. I don't own.**

**Happy Reading!**

**The song I was listening to a lot when writing this was Dancing With Tears In My Eyes by Ke$ha. Kinda appropriate for where Bella is throughout most of this chapter.**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter Twelve

Hangovers and Marshmallows

EPOV

_How. The. Fuck. Did. That. Happen?_ I kept turning the conversation we had over and over in my head as I tossed and turned all night. My heart ached, missing the warmth of Bella in my bed which I had gotten used to.

A few times, I grabbed my cell phone to call her, flipped through the contact list to her name, hovered my finger over the green button, but flipped the phone closed and dropped it back onto the table where it had been charging. I had no idea how to fix the mess that we had landed in, and hoped that there was a way back from here.

I knew that I was responsible for part of it, but if she had talked to me when Alice first went in the hospital, most of this could have been resolved. When she started cutting me out of the conversation, I was so hurt. We needed to talk through our problems, not run away from them. And that's what she did. The more I thought back on the conversation, the more frustrated I got with how she handled the situation. _No more of this, you'll just make it worse. You'll cross that bridge when you get there. _

My thoughts turned to my daughter, missing her with every part of my being. I wondered if Esme was doing okay with her nightmares. She was bound to be having some with the way she had been taken from me. The nights were the worst, since I was used to her small body crawling into bed with me at least once a week.

I missed the smell of her clean hair, the enthusiasm in which she embraced life, and the impossible questions she was always asking. She was the reason why I kept going at work, when things got rough. The way she would run at me screaming my name when I got home; when she asked me if I saved anybody at work, made it easier for me to get through the long shifts. She made this life worth living, and when Bella came into our lives I didn't think it could get any better. From the way Bella immediately put Lizzie at ease, to the way she fit into our family as if she was the missing piece, made me realize how much Bella was meant to be. I didn't understand how Bella could have casually tossed us aside.

It was nine o'clock the next morning when the ringing of my phone brought me out of the half-asleep stupor I had finally managed to fall into an hour earlier. I rubbed my eyes a bit trying to clear my head of the foggy pounding. _Bella_. I scrambled to grab the phone, hoping that it was her.

"Hello?" I asked, anticipation making my stomach churn.

"Hey, Edward? This is Carlisle," his smooth voice came out through the phone.

"Yeah, Carlisle, what's going on?" I asked as I got out of bed, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

"I know that this is going to sound odd, but I'm going to have to hand your case off to one of my fellow partners. It's going to be a conflict of interest for me to continue in the lead position on this case."

"What the _hell_, Carlisle?" I roared into the phone, momentarily putting Bella to the back of my mind. I couldn't keep from pacing the floor and tugging on my hair at this bit of news.

"I feel that with my situation with Esme, it would be better that Garrett and Kate take over the case so that there isn't any sense of impropriety going on. There is enough of the implied unseemliness going on already, I don't want to add to it. Both Kate and Garrett are up to speed on what's going on in the case. I am more than comfortable having them take charge of it."

"Really, Carlisle?" I asked incredulously. "You're abandoning me to a pair of lawyers I don't know and have never worked with? How do I know that they're going to do what need to be done to get me my daughter back?"

"Edward. Calm down." Carlisle's smooth voice managed to take the edge off of my anger. "Kate and Garrett are actually better at this kind of thing. This is their specialty, and in fact, when this came up I was asking them for direction a lot of time. I'm not as practiced in laws governing adolescents. They are actually a better choice if you want to get Lizzie back."

"Fine, but I want a meeting with them Monday," I sighed resignedly.

"I'll let them know you're coming in. Stop by my office before you head to theirs."

"Yeah, I'll see you."

_How could my life get any worse?_

BPOV

My entire body ached. I knew that the second to last beer at the bar should have been my last. It didn't help that we also stopped and picked up a six-pack on the way back to the house and decided to polish them off. The red haze of my eyelids still covering my eyeballs let me know that it was light outside, and even that small amount of light was enough to have my head pounding in pure agony. My entire body ached as I rolled over trying to escape the sunlight pouring down on my face.

The soft thud that accompanied the small weight that hit my back was unexpected and caused me to jump. I ignored it, figuring if someone wanted to get my attention, they'd do other things. A second thud came as the same type of object made contact with my shoulder. My forehead hit the back of the couch as the third object hit the back of my head hard enough to make my head move forward an inch.

I rolled over and cracked my eyelids, just barely making out Alice and Bridgette sitting across from me on the love seat. Alice was sitting sideways on the couch with her back against one of the armrests. Brii was sitting underneath Alice's propped up knees. They were both still in their pajamas and there was a bag of marshmallows propped up in Alice's lap. I wasn't sure who was throwing them, either Brii or Alice, since neither of them had a marshmallow in hand.

"What?" I croaked out. My mouth tasted like armpit and my throat felt like sandpaper. _Water_. _I need water_.

"There's a bottle of water on the end table by your head." Alice said quietly. I know she whispered but it felt like she was talking in a normal voice. "There's also a couple of asprins there as well."

Thank. God. I quickly pulled my arm out from the entangled blankets and reached over to grab the bottle. The two small pills made it into my mouth after taking a few small sips. I tried to keep my eyes closed as much as possible while doing these small tasks, but that proved difficult when I nearly poured the water down my shirt instead of in my mouth. It also didn't help that I was still laying down. I was highly suspicious of Alice's quietness, so I cracked my eyes and looked over at her again.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" I asked in a voice that sounded as if I had been smoking for twenty years. I closed my eyes again, trying to keep my head from pounding.

"I'm on bed rest, not bed ridden. Jasper carried me out here, and as long as I stay put, he's okay with it."

"Where is he?" I asked hoping he felt just as shitty as I was feeling.

"He went back to bed as soon as he carried me out here." _Great, so he left me in the clutches of the little dictator. Traitor. _I grunted at her in response and took another small sip of water.

"What time is it?" I asked in my gravelly voice, not willing to open my eyes long enough to find a clock.

"Eleven o'clock. I figured you should be up since you got in at one last night," she paused for a moment, "So?" she asked, throwing another marshmallow at me. Luckily it hit my arm and not my head. I cracked an eye again and glared at the bag of marshmallows.

"So what?" I scrunched my face up in confusion.

"So where's the ring?" she was peering at my hands as if they held something precious.

"What ring?" Now I was really confused.

"Your engagement ring, silly!" Her voice went up a couple of notches and I screwed my eyes tight with pounding in my head.

"Don't have one," I said shortly.

"What? Jasper said Edward proposed," her voice was taking on a more authoritative tone.

"He did," I replied.

"So?" she asked in what felt like a shout.

"I said no," I said as I braced myself for her reaction.

"What?" she screeched. I tried to burry my head under the pillow at the sound of her shrill voice. "Why?"

"Cause we've only been dating for four weeks!" I said exasperatedly, sitting up as I nearly yelled at her. I immediately regretted it since the pounding in my head felt as if my brain was trying to escape my skull. I screwed my eyes up tight and fell back against the pillows.

"Oh, Bella, how long are you going to let what that asshole Felix did to you dictate how you live your life?" her sad voice was so soft I barely heard it, but it hit me hard when I did.

And that was it right there. Jasper had never known about Felix, so he wouldn't have been able to draw the right conclusions about the real problem with Edward's proposal. When I was in college, it had been so hard for me to form any intimate relationships after what my foster father, James, had put me through. I was so scared of being hurt. Alice was constantly trying to get me to date, and she had set me up on the 'perfect' date. He seemed perfect. He knew exactly what to say, exactly how to put my guard down. We fell into a very close relationship shortly after that first date.

We were engaged within six weeks. Alice had said she thought we were taking it too fast. I didn't believe her. He knew me so well, it was almost as if he had done research on me. Truth came out and he had. The week after his proposal, I showed up at his apartment unannounced and found out the truth of our relationship quite quickly.

He and his friends had a betting pool to see how long he would take to get me into bed. There was a large whiteboard which was tracking our relationship, from our first kiss, to our engagement last week. From what I could tell, many of them bet that the engagement would be the thing to seal the deal. I threw the ring that had meant so much to me at his head and fled the apartment. Alice and I had a chocolate and Ben & Jerry's weekend, crying my eyes out into many pints of ice cream goodness. Alice never tried to set me up on a date again.

Another marshmallow spinning past my head brought me out of my reverie. "I was scared," I admitted. At some point during my trip down memory lane, Bridgette had left the room. I could hear the faint sounds of the TV turn on from in her room.

Alice let the silence drag out, knowing that at this point it was best to just let me get it all out.

"All I could think was about what had happened previously. I," I paused, trying to find the words to explain my reaction. "I panicked. I said no."

"Alright. That's pretty bad, but that's not reason enough for why you're so badly hungover." Alice said. _Damn, I thought that would be enough confession time for Bella. Might as well get this all out._

"He thought I was pregnant," I said the tears burning my eyes.

Alice gasped, bringing her hand up to her throat in shock.

"He was in the hospital when we brought you in for the appendicitis." I continued as the tears I could never stop whenever this subject came up, rolled down my cheeks. "He saw me going into your room, but didn't see either you or Rose there with me. He assumed I was the one who had the pregnancy test, and when I had food poisoning, he chalked it up to morning sickness." I had resigned myself to the possibility of never having kids and when Edward had thought I was pregnant, it reopened the wound I thought had healed.

"What did you say?" her voice echoed a bit in the stillness.

"What else could I say Alice? I was mad. I was hurt. I angrily told him that it was highly unlikely to ever get pregnant because of the cervical cancer. I'm not sure what else I said, not much registered at that point." I paused again, thinking back on what I could remember of the conversation.

"I think he said he loved me, Alice," my heart broke thinking back to the panicked look in his eyes as he realized what he said wasn't making a difference. "I think I hurt him badly."

"What else did you say?" she prompted.

"I don't remember much; just wanted to get to your house and get away from the situation," I said quietly.

"So you decided that the best thing to do would be to, run away and go get drunk with Jasper?" Alice said in an exasperated tone, summarizing what happened.

"Yeah, I was already not thinking straight, why not make it worse?" I said glumly.

"So you decided to try and drink _Jasper_ under the table? The man who can put away more alcohol than you and me together?" Her smug grin irritated me.

"Yeah, he helped me sort through some things though," I said, defending myself.

"And?"

"He and Angela helped me realize that I reacted really badly," I said on a sigh.

"And?" she asked again.

"And I'm going to call him and apologize. I had already planned on talking to him today and talking about it since I wasn't very rational last night. I just figured I'd take a bit of time to sort out my head before discussing it further."

"Good. You do realize how much that man loves you right?" My heart ached when she asked that question.

"Yeah, it sunk in after the second beer. Angela told me she would never let me drink Leinenkugels after that," I said with a slight grin at Angela's lecture on not ruining a good Guinness with tears.

"What are you going to do about his proposal?"

"I'm not sure." I started playing nervously with the binding on the quilt. "Now that I've thought about it and stopped freaking out, I wish my answer was different. But I think I've screwed it up. I don't know if I can fix this."

"Well, your phone's right next to you. Call him and find out what's going on," she said with a small smile.

I sat up as I reach over to pick up the phone with trepidation and called him. He answered on the second ring with a very short, "Yeah?"

"Edward?" I asked tentatively.

"Yeah?" he said again this time with resignation in his voice.

"It's - It's Bella. I said I'd call," I paused. "I wanted to talk about last night and maybe explain some things that happened. Can I come over?" I rushed to get the last part out before my courage gave out.

"Yeah, when will you be here?" he asked shortly.

"Thirty minutes?"

"Fine, see you then," he said abruptly as he hung up the phone. I stared at my phone for a minute just trying to figure out if there was any hope of our relationship continuing. It didn't seem like it from the conversation we just had.

"Well?" Alice's quiet question broke me from my self-destructive thoughts.

"I'm going to meet him at his house. He didn't seem happy about it though."

"Well, you hurt him pretty badly, you probably need to do some groveling and a serious amount of asking for forgiveness. You better get going though, you have what thirty minutes to get there?"

"Yeah," I said starting to get up.

"Well, you smell rancid. Go take a shower, and tell Brii to come out here on the way to the bathroom." Alice ordered in her 'won't take no for an answer' voice. _Ah, there's my favorite little dictator._

"Alright." I walked slowly to the hallway, knocked on Bridgette's door, and finished walking to the shower. I was startled when I first looked into the mirror. My reflection was heinous: mascara running down my face and my hair a mess from sleeping on it. I brushed out my hair and trudged into the shower, making it quick. When I got out, there was an pile of folded clothes waiting for me on the counter; Bridgette must have dropped them off for me. I did the bare minimum make-up, mascara and lipgloss, and walked out to the kitchen.

"Much better; feeling better?" Alice said from her perch on one of the stools.

"I thought you weren't supposed to be up and about." I asked suspiciously.

"I'm allowed to make small trips," she said indignantly. "Before you leave you can help me back to the couch, and I'll stay there for the rest of the day."

"Alright."

"There's coffee for you in the travel mug, and a couple of muffins left over from last week's baking. The keys to my car are on the hook. I figured you would need some way to get there. My largest, darkest pair of sunglasses are in the glovebox. Now take me out to the living room."

Rather than argue with her I helped her out to the living room and tucked a couple of blankets around her. I quickly searched the room for the tv remote, finding it between the cushions of Jasper's favorite armchair. Bridgette came in while I was looking and started a DVD, then sat on the couch next to Alice. I walked back into the kitchen, grabbing the things Alice had set out for me, and walked out to Alice's car.

My eyes felt immediate relief as I slipped on Alice's sunglasses and started up the car. I took a few gulps of coffee, and bit into the blueberry muffin before putting the car in gear and starting on the quick drive to Edward's. When I got there, the muffins were gone, but there was a little coffee left, so I sat there for a few minutes, finishing it and trying to screw up enough courage to walk myself up to the front door.

I rang the doorbell and heard it echoing throughout the house. The door opened, and I was treated to nearly the same sight as when I first met Edward at his home so many weeks ago. That day, while only a little over a month previous, seemed like ages ago. The only difference in how he looked was the hurt and bruised look in his eyes. It made my heart ache, realizing that I was the one responsible for putting that look there. I never wanted to see that look in his eyes again. I made a resolution then and there to make sure it never happened again.

He took a step back without saying a word, allowing me entrance into the house. I stepped into the foyer as I waited him to shut the door, and followed him into the family room and sat on one of the couches. He sat opposite and I carefully slipped my sunglasses from off my eyes, squinting a bit at the brightness of the sunlight in the room.

"You wanted to talk," he said quietly. "So talk."

"First thing I would like to say is: I'm sorry," I started out. He nodded his head in acknowledgement. "I reacted badly to your proposal last night and that's of no fault of yours. It's a long story and I don't know if you want to hear it."

"Yes, please tell me why you so callously said no." I felt hurt at the dig even if I deserved it.

"When I was in college, I got engaged. We had only know each other for a little while but I thought I was so in love, I said yes. A week after our engagement, I found out that it was an elaborate ruse to see when he could get in my pants. There was this large betting pool going on among all his buddies.

"When you proposed, it made me think that it was happening again. It was a gut level reaction to what you were saying. It was illogical, and after thinking about it, I know that you would never have proposed to me without a lot of thought and consideration on your part. Even though it was partly because you thought I was pregnant, I still know you well enough that I know that you didn't go into this lightly. You wouldn't have proposed if this wasn't something you really wanted.

"The whole pregnancy thing was like the last nail in the coffin for me," I continued, blinking back tears I hoped had been done with. "More than one of the break-ups have been contributed to the fact that I will most likely not able to have a baby. I've resigned myself to the idea that I will probably never conceive, but when you thought I was pregnant, it just reminded me of everything I couldn't have. I can't give you kids, and I don't want to loose you because of that."

"That explains why," Edward said after a moment of silence, "but it doesn't fix the hurt I feel. I love you, and I can't handle it when you just push aside something and refuse to discuss it with me. You cut me out of the argument as if I didn't matter."

"I love you, too. So much. I know I reacted badly last night. Please just give me a second chance." I didn't care anymore about dignity, I would beg on my knees if I had to.

"How can we do this Bella? How can we keep going?" The hurt continued to tinge his voice.

"I want to be with you Edward. More than anything. I don't want to give you up," I said imploringly.

"How do I know that this won't just happen again, that you won't just freak out because I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you? Because that is what I want. More than anything," he said as if giving up on getting what he wanted.

"I want it too, Edward," I pleaded. He shook his head slowly, not saying anything else.

"I'll prove it to you then." I got down on one knee -- the same position he was in last night. "Edward, you mean more to me than life itself, will you marry me?" I asked softly.

**

* * *

A/N: My beta did research into why a marshmallow is called a marshmallow. This is what she found:****"Stems of marsh mallow [plant] were peeled to reveal the soft and spongy pith with a texture similar to manufactured marshmallow." I know... she's awesome...**

**I'm rec'ing non-cannon couple fics because that's what I've been reading of late.**

**Notion by Dalia907. A really good Emmett/Bella fic. AH**

**The Air That I Breathe by Journey2002 a Bella/Jasper fic. AU**

**Anybody got any rec's for me?**

**Please review! I love hearing your take on every chapter. Even if it's just a yay or a nay. It encourages me to write more. It also thrills me when I find that some of my favorite parts are also your favorite parts. :D**

**Ever had an irrational reaction to something that turned out to be innocent?**


	13. Reunions and Makeups

**A/N: To the best beta in the world, you rock my socks! Thanks Pire!**

**Sorry this is late, but I'm making it up to you by giving you a lemon... RL has been interesting to say the least.**

**Thank you for all the reviews people! You guys put this little story over 600!!!! WHOOT WHOOT!!!**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Ms. Meyers. I don't own!**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter 13

Reunions and Make-ups

Previously

_"How do I know that this won't just happen again, that you won't just freak out because I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you? Because that is what I want. More than anything," he said as if giving up on getting what he wanted._

_"I want it too, Edward," I pleaded. He shook his head slowly, not saying anything else._

_"I'll prove it to you then." I got down on one knee -- the same position he was in last night. "Edward, you mean more to me than life itself, will you marry me?" I asked softly._

BPOV

"Um, huh, what?" Edward asked, flustered. I could see the confusion quickly overtake the anger and pain in his eyes.

"Will you marry me?" I asked again.

"Yes -- No -- Wait, I'm the one who's supposed to ask," he said as he pulled me up onto the couch next to him.

"Well, I figured since I'm the one who messed up the first time, I should ask this time. So what do you say?"

"I-- " Edward's panicking face looked relieved when he heard the phone ring. He reached over to grab the wireless extension while still holding onto me tightly. I fiddled with the hem of my shirt, trying to keep myself busy, trying to pretend as if my heart wasn't in danger.

"Yes?" he asked. He squeezed the arm that was snaked around my waist, smiling at me nervously when I looked up into his eyes.

"You want me to come in now? What about Jefferson?" He paused for a moment listening to the other person on the line. "Alright, I'll see you in about twenty," he said before hanging up the phone.

"Baby," Edward said as he turned me in his arms to look into my eyes, "I love you, but I'm not going to answer that question. Only because I want you to be the one to answer it. I'm old-fashioned and right now is not the time for me to ask again. And I _will_ ask again."

I nodded at him, trying to keep from being disappointed. "Was that work?" I asked, recognizing the mention of one of his fellow surgeons.

"Yeah, there's a large scale trauma and they are calling in any surgeons who can make it in. The 405 overpass collapsed and they're flying the injured in as fast as they can. I'll be back home when I can. Please stay here. I don't think I can handle another night without you." The pleading look in his eyes was the same as Lizzie's when she wanted something. _Damn, I can never say no to that!_

"Alright. I'll see you when you get back." Edward got up, found his keys, and headed towards the garage.

I sat there staring off into space for a bit and then decided that I had to do something or I would make myself crazy. I did the one thing that was guaranteed to be mindless; cleaning. I was finishing up vacuuming the family room when my phone started ringing. I dug through my purse to find the thing.

"Hello?" I asked, not recognizing the number that was on the screen.

"Bella?" Esme's voice came through the tiny speaker.

"Esme, how are you doing?" I asked, glad to hear from her.

"Good, I have some news for you." Esme said with relief tingeing her voice.

"Really, can I come back to work now?" I asked jokingly.

"Yes, but we discovered some things during the investigation and I really need to talk to you about it in person."

"Alright." I said, my relief about getting my job back overshadowed by the worry of what they could have discovered. "I'm at Edward's right now, do you want to come over? Either that or I can meet you for coffee somewhere."

"Edward's house is fine. See you in thirty?"

I gave her directions and we quickly said our goodbyes. The kitchen was calling my name as I walked in to do the thing that always relieved my stress. Baking. I had put the first batch of cookies in the oven when I heard the doorbell ring. Upon opening the door, my lower half was immediately enveloped in warmth as I felt two little arms wrap around my hips. I looked down and saw Lizzie's head buried in my stomach.

"Lizzie girl, what are you doing here?" I asked as I swung her up into my arms and buried my nose in her soft hair. I pulled her tighter to me as relief swept through me at being able to hold her again. _I am never letting her go again. Ever. _

"Auntie Esme said I could come visit with her," she whispered in my ear. My eyes found Esme's and I motioned for her to come in the door.

"Thank you," I said as I hugged her with one arm, not bothering to put Lizzie down.

"I knew you and Edward would want to see her. Is he here?" Esme asked.

"Yeah, where's Daddy?" Lizzie perked up, looking around the room as if he were there; she just had to spot him.

"He got called into work, there was an emergency." The pout on her face was so cute I just had to say something to cheer her up. "There's cookies in the oven, though."

Her face brightened. "That's almost as good as having Daddy."

After we walked into the kitchen, I settled Lizzie on the counter, immediately grabbing a spoonful of cookie dough and handing it to her. I let her down and watched as she wandered off to the family room, which was open to the kitchen. I turned to Esme and said, "Now, what was this news that you had?"

"They've cleared you of all accusations," Esme started. "They did, however, find some oddities in your files."

"What?" I asked alarmed.

"There were some doctored documents in a couple of your files. Someone has been tampering with your old case files. Whoever it was, it looked like they were trying to discredit you as a good employee. The forgeries and false documents weren't very good, and the investigators picked them up almost immediately. They're now investigating who did it since it's a felony to tamper with official documents."

Lizzie's soft footsteps, as she walked out of the kitchen and into the family room, was the only sound as we stood there in silence. Me trying to absorb this new information, Esme, trying to gauge my reaction. I was unsure of why anyone would want to discredit me; there's no purpose to it.

"Is there anyone you can think of that would want to do something like this to you?" Esme asked. "Someone obviously went to a lot of trouble to try and make you look bad."

"The only person who had to gain by doing this was Tanya, but I have no idea how she would have gotten access to the files, or even know what to tamper with." I watched as Lizzie browsed through the DVDs on the shelf, trying to find something to watch.

"True; anyway, I'm taking the findings to Carlisle on Monday morning." Esme said. "Hopefully they'll be able to do something with the info and it might help their case. If anything, it can be submitted that Edward _does_ take good care of his daughter."

"What will this mean for Edward's custody case?" I asked, nodding at Lizzie, who was comfortably settled on a couch, watching a movie.

"The original decision you came to stands. Edward will get visitation, but Lizzie's going to remain in my care until the custody hearing is cleared up."

"Yeah, but Tanya's whole case was dependent on this bit of _evidence_, shouldn't it be overturned now?" I asked.

"The legal process has already been put in motion. The judge, Maggie Fírinne, needs to make a ruling, and then it should be settled. Once she rules in Edward's favor, which I'm sure she will, Tanya won't ever be able to do this again. Nothing will get between the two of them again."

"That's a relief," I said. The timer beeped, so I grabbed a pair of hot pads, then, switched the cookie trays and unloaded the cookies onto a plate. "So, back to work tomorrow?" I asked as I grinned at Esme.

"Yes, back to the normalcy that is our jobs. I can..." The sound of the garage door opening interrupted Esme's comment.

"YAY! Daddy's home!" Lizzie squealed as she came running into the kitchen. She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the door to the garage. We heard his car shut off, and the door open and close as Lizzie hopped from foot to foot, waiting for the door to open. When it did, she screamed, "Surprise!"

Edward immediately fell to his knees and hauled Lizzie into his arms. She started chattering to him like a magpie, as if it had only been an hour since she had last seen him, not the almost week that it had been since they were last together. I barely caught the last of it since part of it was mumbled into his chest. "Auntie Esme brought me over to visit, and Mommy made me cookies and I said they were almost as good as having Daddy, but only almost. I missed you Daddy. I like it at Auntie Esme's house though." At Esme's name, Edward looked over and grinned at her. "Auntie Esme makes the best s'mores in the whole world, I told her she has to teach you how to do it. She said she would."

I pulled Edward up off his knees, and pulled him further into the family room and pushed him and Lizzie towards the couches. The shock had worn off and the grin he had on nearly split his face. I left the two of them to reconnect, which was what they both needed.

After dropping off another plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Edward and Lizzie (and a wink from Edward), I rejoined Esme.

While the two of them were talking, I took Esme on a tour of Edward's house. We ended back at the kitchen when I realized it was nearly supper time. "Do you two want to stay for dinner?" I asked Esme, hoping Edward would get a little more time to spend with Lizzie.

"Of course, we would be happy to. I know Lizzie won't say no. Do you need any help?" Esme asked.

"I was just going to make a simple pasta bake. Doesn't take much, but I wouldn't mind the company," I said with a smile.

Dinner was filled with smiles and laughter as Lizzie told us stories of what she'd been doing at Esme's house. Just having the three of us together reaffirmed my beliefs that this is where I belonged. No matter what, we were going to get through this, and we would be stronger together because of it.

After dinner, Esme helped me wash and load the dishwasher while Edward and Lizzie settled back on one of the couches in the family room and started up the movie again. Esme joined the two of them in the family room as I finished wiping down the counters and putting the leftovers away, as well as packing up some of the cookies for Lizzie to take with her.

I heard the pad of Lizzie's little feet as she walked into the kitchen. I turned to her and saw Edward walking silently behind her.

"Mommy, Daddy wants me to ask you a question." Lizzie fiddled with her dress as she continued, "Will you marry my Daddy?" I looked over at Edward at this, seeing his cheshire cat grin.

"I knew you would never say no to her," he smirked.

"Yes, Lizzie, I will marry your daddy." I said, and with that, Edward pulled me into his arms.

"Good. What does marry mean?" Edward and I both cracked up.

"When two people love each other and decide that they want to be only with each other for the rest of their lives, they get married."

"Like Jasper and Alice?" she asked.

"Yes, just like Jasper and Alice. Grandma and Grandpa are married also." Edward said.

"Were you married to Mean Mommy?" Edward and I both chuckled at Lizzie's name for Tanya.

"At one point," Edward said.

"Oh, k. I'm going to go watch Finding Nemo with Auntie Esme. Can I have a cookie?"

I handed a cookie to her and then she scampered off to watch the movie. I turned to Edward, who still had his arms wrapped around me. "So, you used your daughter against me, huh? Is this going to be a habit of yours in our marriage?" I asked cheekily.

"I'm going to use every advantage I can to make sure you're mine and stay that way." I melted a bit as he said that. "Here, since you wouldn't let me give it to you before... " he trailed off as he fished the ring out of his pocket. I watched as he slipped it on my finger and studied it for a moment. I hadn't looked at it the night before so I took the chance to really look at the rock he put on my finger. The antique ring had intricate filigree carved into the side leading up to the large diamond in the center.

"Oh, Edward, it's beautiful." I said.

"Not as beautiful as you." he said as he pulled me in for a kiss. The instant his soft lips touched mine I knew I was done for. I immediately opened my mouth to his as his tongue stroked mine in a lazy dance of passion and heat. I wove my fingers through his hair, trying to keep him as close as possible. One of Edward's hands wandered down my back, almost to the curve of my ass as the other cupped the back of my neck. Edward pushed me back against the cabinets as we continued to kiss, and I hitched one leg over his hip, trying to pull him in closer to me.

We were interrupted by a throat being cleared from the bar area of the kitchen. Esme stood there with a sleeping Lizzie in her arms. "If you wouldn't mind helping me out to my car, I think I'm going to put her to bed."

"Yeah, let me take her for you," Edward said as he jumped at the chance to hold his daughter one last time tonight.

I walked into the family room, picking up the random things that were in there and shutting off the DVD that was still playing. Edward's arms snaked around me, pulling me from my thoughts, "I could do with a shower, how bout you?" he whispered in my ear.

Shower. Edward. Wet. Mmmm. I nodded my head and we headed towards the stairs, Edward's arms still wrapped around me. When we got to the bathroom, we slowly undressed each other, reacquainting ourselves with each other's bodies. Soft touches and caresses were exchanged as we washed each other. I was so relaxed by the time we were done, I nearly fell asleep standing there. "Uh-uh, no time for sleeping, my lovely soon-to-be-wife."

I peeked a glance at him through my lashes and saw his eyes concentrated on my lips which I had caught in my teeth. His thumb brushed my lips before slowly descending to softly touch his to mine. This kiss was unlike any we had exchanged before. The passion slowly built as we sipped at each other's lips, pulling and licking leisurely. The heat built as his warm arms pulled me in closer to his, our wet bodies sliding against one another. He pulled my leg up and I wrapped my leg around him, trying to get friction where I desperately wanted it. His hard cock was rubbing against my pussy, teasing me with the promise of it. I barely noticed when Edward turned off the water and pushed us towards the shower door.

I moaned in protest when his lips left mine as he grabbed one of the towels to start drying us off. The towel was soft against my skin as he dried me off quickly, taking extra care to abrade my nipples with the velvety cloth. I turned towards the door, intending to move our play to the bedroom, when I felt him smack my ass softly making me jump.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked as he pulled my back up against him, his erection digging into my back.

"Bed?" I asked suggestively.

"Uh-uh, Bella, you thought wrong." he said as he grabbed my hands and turned me to face the counter. He placed my hands on the counter and bent me over slightly. "We're not going anywhere."

He continued to play with my nipples, causing me to moan and grind back against his hot erection, encouraging him to take what was already his.

"Do you want it?" he asked as he rubbed his length along my ass.

I nodded, unable to put into words how much I did.

"Do you really? Tell me." he said as his eyes burned into mine.

"Yes," I begged. "Edward, _please_."

I gasped in bliss as his hard cock filled me swiftly from behind. His fingers plucked my nipples and I melted at the sensations quickly taking me over.

"Open your eyes, _my_ Bella." Edward growled in my ear. "I want to watch you come apart."

I slitted my eyes open to see Edward's bright green eyes nearly glowing in the reflection in the mirror. His right hand moved down to cup my center, his fingers teasing me, causing me to shiver and moan. He licked his way from my ear to my neck, gently sucking, his fingers playing me to perfection as he pounded into me harder and harder.

"Come, my Bella." Edward said, looking into my eyes again as he gently bit my shoulder and I couldn't stop myself from doing exactly that. My breath stopped momentarily as my world fell apart and remade itself in that glorious instance. His thrusts continued to push me higher in my own ecstasy and I managed to open my eyes to see his face as bliss overtook him. He pulled out and crushed me in his arms, kissing my forehead, both of us breathing heavily.

"I love you, my Bella."

"I love you, too." I said as we made our way into the bedroom and got into bed, finally feeling as if I was home.

"Mine." he murmured softly as he pulled me into his arms.

"Yours" I agreed softly as I drifted off to sleep.

**

* * *

A/N: K people, one more chapter and then the Epilogue. You guys rock my socks.... :D**

**Rec's:**

**Wanted by Anadabyel JxB, lots of Lemons... VERY GOOD!**

Bella discovers after a wild night with old friends that she has been lied to for years. She must heal herself from the betrayals, but once she does will she be able to help her friends as well? OOC/AU/AH Lots of lemons/adult language.

**Sassafrass Junction by VampishVixen JxB, Amazing story, updates regularly.**

Twice abandoned, three times as heartbroken. Bella leaves Forks behind to start over in Phoenix. New Bella, new life. A familiar face shows up at work one night; Jasper can't believe his eyes, but he's liking what they see. Ditto Bella.

**Alright people, I just want to let you all know that I am co-authoring a new story with my beta Pire. It's a Jasper/Bella fic, cause we heart Jasper. My beta came up with the idea, I just added to it. :D **

**If you want to put us on author alert for when it comes out, we created a new profile with the penname Pire in the Gutter. It won't start posting until after this is finished, so no worries, I will finish this first. Here's the summary:**

**Turbulence of a Flame**

_**Summary:**__ Earthdate 246. The world is changed. Kidnap, deception, struggle, power, and lust thrive in the story of a rescue mission that could further change the future of Earth. AU, BxJ, slightly OOC~_

_**Note:**_ _The characters in this story have taken on a life of their own and some small aspects do not follow the canon of SM's Twilight._ _ We hope you embrace the new stuff as much as we do!_ _Oh, and this will be a Bella/Jasper, so move along if you disapprove of blond lovin'._

**What's your favorite non-cannon pairing?**


	14. Trials and Tribulations

**A/N: To the best beta in the world.... PIRE.... I miss you.... I think I'm going through withdrawals....**

**A BIG thank you goes out to my friend, Heather, who was my personal dictionary during this chapter. Without her you all would not have this chapter even as late as it is. Thank you for getting me out of the house and making me write (and answering all the stupid questions I asked...).**

**Thank you to everyone who is reading this and reviewing! Sorry this took so damn long... **

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Mrs. Meyer. I don't own.**

**Happy Reading!**

**

* * *

  
**

**Exes and Ohs**

Chapter 14

Trials and Tribulations

BPOV

I snapped my phone shut just before heading up the stairs to my favorite pub on 2nd Street. _Meet me at Murphy's_ was the text message I got from Edward on my way home for the day. I stayed late trying to get a lot of the cases wrapped up that had been put on hold while I was on leave. The trial started today and I knew that it couldn't have gone too well if they were already at the pub.

The noise in the bar was enough to wake the dead as I walked in and was greeted with the smiling face of Angela behind the bar. She sat a couple of water bottles on the counter and pointed me over towards a table in the back where I spotted Edward and Emmett each nursing a beer. I don't know which one of them looked worse, Edward or Emmett. Emmett looked as if someone told him he couldn't have sex for a year because of something he did, and Edward looked as if his dog just died. The guilt and sadness on Emmett's face rivaled the pure misery on Edward's.

I turned back to Angela and asked, "How long have they been here?"

"Three hours; they got in at half past five. They've gone through four pitchers by themselves. Cheer them up, would you?" She winked and I nodded at her as took the waters for them to their table.

Neither of them looked up as I slid into a seat next to Edward. He looked surprised to see me when I leaned into him for a kiss. "What's up, boys?" I asked cautiously; their moods worried me and I just wanted to get them home.

"Bad day," Edward said quietly. The silence from the two of them bothered me and I grabbed Edward's hand, pulling him to his feet.

"C'mon. Let's get you both home." Edward was compliant, but I had to smack Emmett up side the head before he paid attention to what I was saying. I got them to the car, handing each of them a bottle of water encouraging them to drink, trying to sober them up a bit. The drive to Edward's house was short, but the heavy silence fell like an oppressive blanket you couldn't claw your way out of. The two of them walked dejectedly into the house, slumping into the first couch they could find.

The silence continued for a bit before Emmett broke it when he said, "I'm sorry, man."

"It's not like we didn't expect it. Kate and Garrett said they would try something like that." They must be talking about the trial, since Kate and Garrett were Edward's lawyers. They had warned Edward that since there is no evidence of wrong doing on either Edward or Tanya's part, it would come down to a smear campaign. It would be a matter of how much dirt the other could fling. Something must have happened in the trial that made Emmett and Edward upset.

"Yeah, but I can't believe I walked into that. That was so stupid." The curiosity was eating at me, I just wanted to shake Emmett and ask him what the hell he was talking about, but I knew that if I didn't get the whole story out of him now, Edward and I would stay up late going over how the trial went. He knew that it was killing me to not be able to be there for him and Lizzie, and that I wanted every detail of what happened. I looked over at Emmett and was surprised when I saw him burst into tears. He continued to sob as I pulled him into my arms and let him cry it out on my shoulder.

"Emmett, it's okay. Tanya's lawyer's job is to make you look as shitty as possible. They'll tear anyone down that I have as a witness as a way to make her look better." Edward's reasonable tone did nothing to stop my brother from becoming a blubbering mess. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Rosalie with one hand, while rubbing Emmett's back with the other.

"Hello?" she answered on the second ring.

"Hey, can you come pick up your man?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, where are you?" I could hear the crisp edge to her voice that brooked no nonsense from her patients.

"Edward's. I just picked them up from Murphy's."

"I'll be there in ten."

Five minutes later we heard a jingle of keys as Rosalie walked in the front door. She came in and gently pulled Emmett into her arms as she mouthed _thank you_ to me. Emmett's tears had nearly dried up and she wiped the last of them away carefully. Rosalie pulled him into her arms and rubbed his back. "Come on, baby, let's get you home."

"K," came a watery sounding acceptance from Emmett. They slowly shuffled towards the front doors, Emmett's large frame being supported by Rosalie's smaller one. I knew then and there that Rosalie was probably the best person to marry my brother. Her no nonsense attitude was softened by Emmett's boisterous outlook on life. And yet, she grounded him in a way in which no other person could. Seeing the way Rosalie took care of him when he was so obviously hurting, cemented her standing in my heart. She would be a sister to me for the rest of her life as long as she continued to look after him in the way she did tonight.

I walked over to where Edward was staring off in the distance, and pulled him up, herding him towards our room upstairs. Edward and I got ready for bed in silence. It wasn't until we were both laying there in the dark that Edward spoke up, "I'm worried, Bella. If this is how the whole trial is going to go, I don't know if I want to go through with it. But I can't loose Lizzie. She means so much to me."

"Tell me what happened," I said as I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer. He snuggled into me, wrapping his arms about me and resting his head on my shoulder. Our legs entwined as he rested half on top of me.

"It started out okay. Emmett did pretty well when Garret questioned him. It wasn't until halfway through Aro's questioning that his composure cracked. When Aro asked what it was Emmett and I did while watching Lizzie, he confessed to drinking and watching TV. Aro made it seem as if we got drunk and didn't watch Lizzie when he was over. It was pretty bad Bella. Aro's good at twisting your words to make it seem as if you said something completely different from what you meant."

I combed my fingers through his hair, giving myself a moment to collect my thoughts. I wanted nothing more than to reassure this man. "Edward, I've been checking around at work. Kate and Garret are some of the most competent lawyers when it comes to custody hearings. They're success rate is unparalleled. Your case is in good hands. Don't let your doubts keep you from believing that you will get Lizzie back."

"I know, but I can't help but feel that this is going to go horribly wrong. Today was just horrible." We continued to lay there in silence, Edward slowly drifting off to sleep as I continued to hold him in my arms.

"It'll be alright Edward. You'll get Lizzie back. I have no doubt." I whispered to an already asleep Edward as I tried not to worry about my day in court.

. . . . .

"Your witness, counselor," Kate said as she went to sit down at the table opposite from where Tanya was sitting. She had just finished up questioning me in regards to some of the details of my investigation. I was sitting in the witness's chair next to the Judge's desk, trying to keep from being nervous. Edward was sitting at one of the tables with an empty chair between him and Kate. Garret was missing at the moment, but Kate had reassured Edward and I that he would be there later on. Alice and Bridgette were sitting in the front row behind Edward. My spot, which was next the them was currently vacant while I was sitting up on the witness stand.

Tanya was sitting at the table across from Edward's, looking like a corporate hooker, with a business suit that was conveniently missing the blouse that should have gone with the jacket. I was a little confused as to why she would have thought it would be a good idea to have that much cleavage on display.

Aro De Luca, Tanya's lawyer, stood, straightening his expensive looking suit jacket before beginning to question me. "Now, Ms. Swan, you were in charge of the first evaluation of Mr. Mason's home, is that correct?" the pompous sneer that crossed the lawyer's face as he asked the question put knots in my stomach as I opened my mouth to answer.

"Yes, two months ago we received a phone call, reporting Mr. Mason's alleged abuse." I answered.

"And you went to evaluate him on that day?" Aro asked.

"Yes, I arrived at his house around 6 PM." I answered.

"And what did you find?" Aro asked.

"He was making cookies with his daughter." I looked over at Edward. An encouraging, yet timid closed-mouthed smile played on his lips which bolstered my courage and calmed my rattled nerves.

"And you inspected his home?" Aro asked.

"Yes, his home and care were over and above regulation standards for care," I said

"And did you come to this opinion before or after you slept with him?" Aro asked snidely.

"Objection, badgering the witness." Kate said from her seat.

"Sustained." Judge Fírinne said indicating to Aro to drop the line of questioning and move on.

"Did you come to this opinion before or after you got into a relationship with Mr. Mason?"

"I met Mr. Mason for the first time that day."

"You must have had some contact with him while you were in the hospital, did you not? Our records indicate that you are at the hospital frequently for your job," Aro said.

"Yes, I had seen him previously in the two weeks before I met him," I said.

"And did you or did you not meet him previous to your meeting with him that evening." He smiled his smarmy smile, reminding me of a snake about to pounce.

"Yes, I was introduced to him earlier in the day when one of the children from a previous case I had worked on was admitted to the hospital in which he works." The lawyer's smile melted away leaving an expression of contempt on his face. "He was the lead surgeon on her surgery and was supervising her recovery."

"You were the child's case worker?" he asked.

"I was previously." I said, not quite sure what this had to do with Edward's ability to be a competent parent. "Ms. Esme Cullen, my supervisor, took over the case."

"And, why would she do that?" Aro asked.

"Objection: Relevance?" Kate asked.

"Overruled, Ms. Swan?" Judge Fírinne said as she turned her attention back to me.

"My friends," I started to explain, "who had been Bridgette's foster parents, were looking to adopt her. It would have been a violation of ethics for me to continue to be her case worker."

"So, you were not there in an official capacity?" he asked.

"No, I was there as a concerned friend, worried about the health of my friend's foster child." I said.

"Your relationship with Mr. Mason, when did it start?" Aro asked.

"We went out to dinner that next Friday," I answered after a moment to remember when was the first time we went out.

"And you started sleeping with him when?" he asked.

"Objection, your honor, I don't see how this line of questioning is relevant again." Kate stood up making me breathe a sigh of relief.

"I'm establishing whether or not the witness's relationship interfered with how she evaluated Mr. Mason." The contempt that had been written all over Aro's face was quickly concealed as he turned to the judge.

"Your honor, the witness has already testified that the relationship was not started until the after her evaluation had been completed. This line of questioning is an invasion of the witness's privacy."

"Sustained. The question will be stricken from the record," Judge Fírinne said calmly.

"I have no more questions your honor." Aro gave a small bow to the judge before spearing me with a hateful glance.

"The witness may step down," Judge Fírinne said as I let out a trembling breath. My part of the trial was over with. I stepped down from the witness's seat and made my way to the seat right behind Edward. Alice gave me a one armed hug as I sat next to her.

"I'd like to call to the stand Michael Newton." Kate said. I watched as Mike stood up and straightened his cheap looking suit and walked towards the seat I had just vacated and was sworn in.

"Mr. Newton, you work for social services correct?" Kate stood as she began to question Mike who was sitting uncomfortably in the witness chair, fiddling with a tie that looked as if it was tied too tight.

"Yes, I was assigned to evaluate Tanya Reynolds and the care she provided for her daughter Elizabeth Mason," his voice cracked on the last syllable.

"What days were you evaluating her?" Kate asked.

"Our first evaluation was on Monday, May 13th, two weeks ago. She had confessed to me that she was worried about the care Elizabeth was receiving from her father."

"Objection, your honor," Kate said, turning to face the judge.

"Sustained. Mr. Newton, please answer the questions asked of you, and only what is asked of you." Judge Fírinne said.

"Yes, your honor." Mike said, further worrying the tie ends.

"And on that day, what did you observe about Ms. Reynolds and the care that she could provide?" Kate asked.

"The apartment that she had rented had everything that was required by the state for health and safety standards. She had provisions to feed and clothe the child in question," Mike answered.

"And how long did you spend in Ms. Reynold's apartment?" Kate asked.

"The inspection took twenty minutes. I was there for the amount of time necessary to inspect the apartment and then I left," Mike swallowed nervously and continued to fiddle with his tie.

"Did you have any follow up evaluations with Ms. Reynolds?" Kate asked.

"Yes, a week later, on the 20th," Mike said. The door in the back of the room opened and closed and I looked back to see Garrett striding towards the front of the room with a large manila envelope in his hand. He quickly sat at the table next to Edward while Kate continued on in her questioning of Mike.

"And how long did you spend this time?" Kate asked as she walked back to the table and picked up the envelope that Garret now handed her. She opened the envelope and flipped through the documents as she waited for Mike to answer her.

"I was there for about thirty minutes at two o'clock," Mike tugged on his tie as he answered her.

"Judge Fírinne, I'd like to submit new evidence to the court," Kate said as she turned to the judge and handed her the documents she had received.

"I'll admit them." Judge Fírinne said after she flipped through them. A look of disgust flitted over her face as she handed them back to Kate.

"Mr. Newton, you testified that you evaluated her on the 20th of this month at two o'clock. These pictures I have here," Kate paused as she handed the photographs to Mike who promptly turned beet red, "testify to something completely different. Can you please tell me what the time stamp says in the upper right hand corner?"

"May 20th, 2:05 PM," Mike answered grudgingly.

"And what are these pictures of, Mr. Newton?" Kate asked.

"Um, Ms. Reynolds and I." Mike answered.

"And what activity are you in the middle of?" Kate asked.

"Um... We're um..." he stuttered as the tugging on his tie resumed and sweat broke out on his forehead.

"You're sleeping with Ms. Reynolds aren't you?" Kate asked.

"Objection, your honor. Leading the witness," Aro piped up, a look of worry crossing his features.

"Overruled. Mr. Newton, please answer the question."

"Yes, I am," Mike answered.

"Would you like to restate you testimony Mr. Newton? Did you evaluate Ms. Reynolds on the 20th? Please keep in mind that you've been sworn in." Kate reminded him.

"No," Mike answered quietly.

"Have you ever evaluated Ms. Reynolds?" Kate asked.

"No,"

"And when did your relationship with Ms. Reynolds start?"

"Two and a half months ago," Mike answered glumly.

"And when were you going to advise your supervisors that you were in a relationship with Ms. Reynolds?" Kate asked

"I... Uh..." Mike stuttered.

"And when did you decide to sue for custody of the child?"

"I didn't."

"You didn't hatch a plan to take Elizabeth Mason from her father? Knowing intimately the workings of the social services policies and regulations?"

"No, it was Tanya's idea," Mike said, a look of desperation on his face. "She came up with the false accusation idea."

Tanya shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Mike's testimony took a turn for the worse. "You admit that the accusation was false?"

"Yeah, she's the one who called it in."

"And the falsified documents in Ms. Swan's case histories?" Kate asked.

"That was Tanya's idea, too!" he exclaimed, a look of relief crossing his face.

"Liar!" Tanya screeched as she stood up from behind the table. "It was your idea to falsify the documents, since you always hated her for rejecting you."

"Mr. De Luca, please control your client," Judge Fírinne reprimanded Aro as he put a hand on Tanya's shoulder and forced her to sit down.

"I have no more questions for the witness, your honor." Kate said.

"Mr. Newton, you may have a seat." Judge Fírinne paused before continuing, "In light of the testimony we have heard today, I'm making a ruling right now. I don't feel that it's necessary to waste tax payers dollars by stringing this trial on by listening to more testimony, when it is obvious that this case is a farce.

"I'm granting custody to Mr. Edward Mason. It shall be stated for the records that Ms. Reynolds's custody will be permanently revoked. Case dismissed."

* * *

**A/N: Alright peeps, review the heck out of this please, so I can go out with a bang. The epilogue is already written, but I won't post until I get at least... 70 reviews? There's over 700 of you who have this on story alert, so that's only 10% of you!!!! **

**Rec's**

**I'm pretty sure I rec'd these before but if you haven't read it, you should,**

**The Sound of Silence by hopeisabluebird. Edward/Bella Fic**

**Dartmouth Diaries by Clurrabella. Jasper/Bella Fic**

**Any of the stories by Coldplaywhore (cause she writes like a demon!!!)**

**Love you all, please review.**


	15. Epilogue: Future and Bright

**Special thanks goes out to Coldplaywhore for beta'ing this for me...**

******Thank you to everyone who is reading this and reviewing! You guys are awesome. So far there have been 100 reviews on the last chapter alone... You all amaze me!!!**

**Twilight and all it's characters are under the ownership of Mrs. Meyer. I don't own.**

**Happy Reading**

* * *

**Exes and Ohs**

Epilogue

Future and Bright

Five Years Later

BPOV

"Mommy, Eva and I want to hear it superlouder!" I heard Lizzie pipe up from the backseat.

"Yeah, supa-louda!" Evangeline parroted.

"Alright, but only since baby Chance isn't in the car with us." I turned the music up so that the two of them could sing as loud as they wanted and not worry about hearing any sour notes that might accompany it.

I looked back at the two of them, so happy that they got along so well. I knew that it was harder for an older child to accept when a new child is brought into their lives, but Lizzie was an exception to the rule. When Evangeline, or Eva as Lizzie called her, came into our family, Lizzie took to her like a duck takes to water. While Eva was still in the hospital, Lizzie was constantly asking to look at her sister, her nose pressed against the glass, watching her sleep. When we brought Eva home, Lizzie was always asking to hold her. No one could calm Eva down as fast as her big sister Lizzie, when Eva was in one of her crying fits.

Edward and I had been married for a year when we got the news that I was pregnant. We hadn't been trying, but I didn't think I would get pregnant, so it came as a complete shock to us. I was on bed rest through much of the pregnancy and whenever I got the urge to go out and do something rash, Alice would show up and entertain me until I got over my 'stupidity' as she liked to call it. It was rough at first, and I had to take a leave of absence from work, which ended up with me quitting the first month after Eva was born. She had my brown hair and Edward's bright green eyes, same as Lizzie and there wasn't anyone she loved more than her big sister Lizzie.

"Alright, we're here," I said as the two of them bounced happily in their seats.

The girls piled out of the car, Lizzie helping Eva with her car seat buckles, and raced to the front door of the two story ranch-style house. I popped the trunk before I got out, grabbing their overnight bags from the trunk and made my way to the door. Halfway up the drive, the front door opened, and Esme stood there beaming at my two girls. She swooped the two of them into her arms as they giggled, swapping kisses and hugging each other tight. When Esme put them down, the two of them scampered away inside the house screaming, "Unca Carlisle!" as they went.

Esme held the door open as I continued my way up to her and pulled me into her arms once I walked up the steps. "You have no idea how much it means to me that you two are going to watch them this weekend."

"You know how much we love having them. Carlisle threatens to come over and kidnap them when he feels like he hasn't seen them in a while." Esme said with a grin. "Where's Chance at this weekend?"

"He's staying with Emmett and Rosalie. Emmett's finally convinced Rosalie that he really does want children, and he's using it as an opportunity to convince her that he's responsible enough to take care of a child."

"And you trusted your brother with your son? Are you crazy?" Esme asked.

"No, he's actually watched them all for me before when I had the flu two months ago. Chance loves him. I trust Emmett just as much as I trust you and Carlisle."

"How's the business going?" Esme asked as she walked me back to the car.

"Just as busy as ever." After Alice's vintage clothing business took off three years ago, she opened a boutique on 2nd Street filled with her particular style of clothing. She hired me to keep her supplied with baked goods which she liked to keep on hand for her regular customers. We had a nice little trade off going, she kept my wardrobe up to date, and I'd bring her fresh baked goodies every day.

Two years ago, I was hired by a couple of Alice's neighboring stores to bring them fresh baked goods as well. At the moment, I baked for five stores along 2nd Street, as well as Alice's. Edward was encouraging me to just open a bakery, since it would be easier in the long run, but I wanted to wait until Chance was a little older before doing that. However, I was convinced that he didn't want the mess in the kitchen anymore.

"You know they're letting Mike out of jail next month," Esme said as I unlocked the car door. Mike and Tanya had been prosecuted for tampering with governmental documents, two months after the custody hearing. Both of them had been involved in the scheme and had been found guilty. They were each sentenced to seven years in jail.

"No, I didn't know that," I said.

"He's getting out for good behavior," Esme continued, "but it looks like Tanya will be serving her full term."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" I smirked

"Well," Esme said, "I don't think it surprised any-"

"AUNTIE ESME!!!!!" my two little girls screamed as they ran out the front door. Carlisle watched from the open door as they ran up to Esme and grabbed her hands, pulling her back towards the house.

"Be good!" I yelled out to them as they giggled and waved at me.

"Bye Mommy," they chirped.

I chuckled as I started the car and drove towards home. The drive was silent as I enjoyed the moments alone, letting myself relax as I looked forward to the upcoming weekend. Edward wasn't supposed to be home for another hour, so I was planning on getting dinner started. I was in the middle of staring at the contents of the fridge, trying to figure out what to make, when an arm snaked around my waist and another one closed the refrigerator door. I leaned back against Edward's chest and looked up into his eyes, which were sparkling mischievously, as he leaned over me and planted little kisses on my lips.

"You-" kiss, "are wearing-" kiss, "way-" kiss, "too many-" kiss, "clothes." He finished as he deepened the kiss, making me melt in his arms as he turned me around and crushed me to his chest. I realized he had been waiting for me naked when I wrapped my arms around him and only encountered heated flesh. Our tongues continued to rub along each other's as he let me go in order to unbutton the coat that I hadn't taken the time to take off when I got in. He dropped it on the kitchen floor as he started moving me toward the stairs. My shirt came off in the living room, my bra on the stairs, my pants in the hallway, and my panties in the bedroom. Edward pushed me onto the bed and quickly followed me down, warming my body with his.

"I'm going to make love to you all weekend," he whispered as started kissing a trail down my neck.

"I certainly hope so." I moaned.

* * *

**That's all folks.... Hope it was worth the time to read it!!!! Thanks for all the reviews!!!!**

**Oh... and if you all want to know a little more about me and this story, head over to PIC Fanfic Corner. My interview with Mean Mrs. Mustard is supposed to be posted on Friday! www(dot)picffcorner(dot)blogspot(dot)com**

**THANK YOU!!!!**


	16. Not a Chapter

Hey all, I'm just doing a little shameless plugging right now. I've started a new story called Playing with Fate. Here's the summary and a little sneak peak from chapter 1.

Summary:

How will the worst dates ever end up meaning love everlasting? Will Fate intervene and put right what has been set up as wrong? Cannon Couples. AH.

Chapter 1: Dating below Standard.

The phone started ringing as soon as I walked in the door. I quickly checked the caller id before picking it up. "How do you always know when I walk in the door you little pixie?"

"Hey, you can't call me little anymore. I grew. Some." Alice said and we both giggled. I quickly slid off my heels and collapsed onto the sofa. All of my things were currently piled around me in boxes waiting to be shipped. While I would be flying to Los Angles, the rest of my things would be shipped down by the moving company tomorrow. My fellow volunteers at the hospital had tried to set me up on one last date before I left, hoping to get me to stay. They all thought that I was moving to a new place. What they didn't know was that I was moving back home. Home to the land of sunshine and warmth, not rain clouds and dreariness. "How was the date Bella? Was he up to the Cullen Standards?"


End file.
